9/14/2026 – Very often our Game of the Week is a pretty model game, sometimes it is just a very adventurous game like Fier's samba game last week. Today we have a game from yet another category: Mukhiddin Madaminov was well on his way to create a beautiful masterpiece, but Aydin Suleymanli turned out to be a tough defender and the difficulty of the position completely got out of control. We will examine how sacrificing a rook and two pieces was actually fully correct and how White could have crowned his attack. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

9/5/2026 – Our Brazilian friend Alexandr Fier is known for his samba way of playing chess: playing active chess, looking for adventure, taking risks, going for the direct attack whenever possible. Since he plays his moves very fast, he puts additional pressure on the clock. His games are not always correct, but surely entertaining. Our Game of the Week is his great fight with Jergus Pechac, in which both players found many creative moves, until eventually Fier found a lovely finish. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

9/4/2026 – Last week we studied how Vincent Keymer created an impressive amount of chances from his five white games at the Sinquefield Cup. Jakhovir Sindarov obviously cannot reveal the same amount of prep because of his upcoming World Championship match, but still he played something very interesting against Jorden van Foreest, which is our Game of the Week. The theme of sacrificing a pawn with d5 against the Queen's Indian is widely known, but he came up with a rare version. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/21/2026 – Vincent Keymer played an absolutely phenomenal Sinquefield Cup: judging from the chances he created with his trademark opening play, he should have finished clear first. In times where 1.e4 and 1.d4 main lines are analysed to a draw, Keymer manages to create hyper flexible positions from the Reti, English, Neo London and Accelerated (!) Neo London. While the original plan was to talk you through Keymer-Caruana, this video talks you through the opening stages of all five Keymer games with White. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/12/2026 – The most remarkable result of the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters 2026 is that World Champion Gukesh continues to suffer, finishing in last place with 2 out of 7. It continues to show that the world title comes with a lot of pressure, especially for such a young player. The tournament was won by Firouzja with 4.5 out of 7. Our Game of the Week is the strong last round win by Andreikin vs Abdusattorov, with a very interesting pawn structure.Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/7/2026 – At the Dutch Open in Dieren many interesting games were played, including several GOTW candidates. Especially the seventh round was a bloody affair with decisive results at the first five boards. My old friend Rick Lahaye (2394) played a positional masterpiece against IM Harshavardhan (2508). Without wanting to spoil too much, it's the perfect example of playing with a classical Nimzowitsch blockading knight and its longterm power. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/3/2026 – Thomas Beerdsen is in good shape this summer and won the Dutch Open in Dieren. Before that, he played in the Swiss Open in Grächen, and in the penultimate round he played against his girlfriend, Viktoria Radeva. When you know eachother so well, it's not easy to surprise eachother in the opening, and so Thomas ended up taking a considerable amount of risk with the uncommon 1.e4 e6 2.b3, after which soon a unique position appeared.Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/31/2026 – The chess summer continues with events all over the place. The DOLE open in Aix-en-Provence, France, features elite players like Nepomniachtchi, Tabatabaei and Maghsoodloo. Nepo already had to accept two draws in the first four rounds, when he was paired with young Norwegian GM Aksel Bu Kvaloy in the fifth round. Both players showed very inspired chess, each of them willing to sacrifice material at various stages of the game. Nepo kept playing very fast, until disaster struck. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/29/2026 – There is a lot of chess going on right now. While I'm playing in the first edition of the Amsterdam Chess Festival myself, there are elite events going on in Chennai and Biel. While Firouzja is leading in Chennai (beating Gukesh in the second round), Le Quang Liem is leading in Biel. Our Game of the Week is Martinez Alcantara vs Le Quang Liem, featuring the trendy 6...g5 in the Steinitz Deferred variation of the Ruy Lopez. For now the verdict seems to be: fully playable for Black. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/8/2026 – This week at the Dutch Championship, Max Warmerdam surprised his former trainer Loek van Wely with a very nasty piece of homework in the 6.Bg5 Nbd7 variation of the Najdorf. In Dutch chess circles the game Arno Bezemer-Twan Burg, Meesterklasse 2011, is a well-known game from the early 6...Nbd7 days, featuring Velimirovic style attacking play. Max combined knowledge of this important old game with some new move order twists, making Black's job extremely difficult. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/3/2026 – Germany's number one Vincent Keymer versus Dutch number two Jorden van Foreest tends to be a very interesting clash of styles and their mutual games are always interesting. Earlier this year Jorden managed to impressively beat Vincent twice, but this week at the Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz in Croatia it was the other way around. Jorden's typical dynamic play was stifled bit by bit and eventually Vincent reached full domination. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/25/2026 – The French league is usually a good source of exciting games and this week we are studying the highly entertaining and very complex game between Dutch number two Jorden van Foreest and the best French player of all time: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The World's former number two is known for this love of the highly theoretical and dynamic Grunfeld, but here he got seriously tested in the very sharp 5.h4 variation. The truely adventurous game ended with a very pretty finish. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/19/2026 – The French league is usually a good source of exciting games and this week we are studying the highly entertaining and very complex game between Dutch number two Jorden van Foreest and the best French player of all time: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The World's former number two is known for this love of the highly theoretical and dynamic Grunfeld, but here he got seriously tested in the very sharp 5.h4 variation. The truely adventurous game ended with a very pretty finish. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/11/2026 – The UzChess Cup is a fantastic event in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The third edition has a fantastic line-up and shows an enormous amount of fighting chess and decisive results. It's classical chess, the time control is normal, and chess fans around the world get what they the hope for. After four rounds, Abdusattorov, Erigaisi and Vokhidov are in the lead. Our Game of the Week is the surprising and entertaining win by Mukhiddin Madaminov against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/5/2026 – Norway Chess is arguably the strangest tournament in many years. Last week we discussed that Magnus Carlsen had already lost two games, but after eight rounds, he in fact already lost four games. This really seems to be caused by the fact that they play without increment before move 40 and with only 10 instead of 30 seconds increment after move 40. Our Game of the Week between Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh was highly spectacular and entertaining. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/1/2026 – Magnus Carlsen has started Norway Chess with 0.5 out of 3 and his two losses seem to be a direct result of the unusual time control: increment only starts after move 40. Reasonably well played games are ruined by terrible blunders in time trouble. It's questionable how this makes chess more fun and it's strange to see that all important tournaments are using a different time control. Anyway, the game between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen was a big adventure with many interesting moments.Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

5/15/2026 – Last week we saw how Magnus Carlsen lost against Jorden van Foreest, which put him at 2 out of 4 at that point. But then he managed to win his remaining three games, and 5 out of 7 was just enough to share first place with Erigaisi. Eventually, Carlsen won the blitz tiebreak with 2-1, so he did it again. Our Game of the Week is the historical last round encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, the 14-year-old that may very well be his successor one day. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

5/7/2026 – The TePe Sigeman tournament is having an amazing line-up. Erigaisi is impressively leading with 4.5 out of 6, ahead of 14-year-old Erdogmus and Carlsen, who are historically meeting in the final round. Abdusattorov is another heavy weight participant and it is cool to see 16-year-old Woodward in action. Zhu leaves a strong impression being the only female in the field and only local hero Grandelius has a tough tournament. Last but not least Van Foreest managed to beat the GOAT for the first time in his career, which is our GOTW. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.