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Game of the Week #743: Gaal vs Smeets

10/9/2026 – On Saturday the second round of the Dutch League was being played and the top match between Kennemer Combinatie and LSG was convincingly won by KC with 7-3. Ratingwise they were the slight favourite, but the main difference is that KC focuses on intergrating young players in their team, whereas LSG does not. Zsoka Gaal played her first game in the Dutch League and created a nice piece of art against experienced Dutch grandmaster and national coach Jan Smeets. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Game of the Week #742: Leko vs Erigaisi

9/30/2026 – Abdusattorov was the best player of the Olympiad with 8.5 out of 11 on board 1, beating Rapport, Ding Liren and Caruana amongst others, leading his country to victory. The games by Abdusattorov are always a candidate for Game of the Week, but our attention was drawn by the clash of generations and styles between Leko and Erigaisi. This last round encounter was very important and told an interesting story about how times have changed chesswise. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Game of the Week #741: Jobava vs Keinanen

9/27/2026 – The Olympiad in Samarkand is such an amazingly large and diverse event, that it is nearly impossible to decide between so many interesting games. Last week we selected an upset from the first round, this week we picked a hidden jewel from the middle of the tournament and next week we will probably focus on the top boards in their fight for the medals. Today's Game of the Week features good old Baduur Jobava, creating fireworks from a French exchange variation against Toivo Keinanen. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Game of the Week #740: Erigaisi vs Laohawirapap

9/26/2026 – The Olympiad in Samarkand has started and basically everyone is playing, including Gukesh and Sindarov. The Olympiad remains a most impressive event, with all these countries participating. In the first round there are many 4-0 results, but also the usual upsets. It looked like Erigaisi was going to easily beat IM Prin Laohawirapap from Thailand, but the position remained more tricky then you would think at first view and eventually turned into a complete mess, which is our Game of the Week.Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Game of the Week #739: Madaminov vs Suleymanli

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.

Game of the Week #738: Fier vs Pechac

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.

Game of the Week #737: Sindarov vs Van Foreest

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.
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Game of the Week #736: Keymer with White

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.

Game of the Week #735: Andreikin vs Praggnanandhaa

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.
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Game of the Week #734: Lahaye vs Harshavardhan

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.
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Game of the Week #733: Beerdsen vs Radeva

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.

Game of the Week #732: Nepomniachtchi vs Kvaloy

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.
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