Game of the Week #515: Wesley So vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

by Merijn van Delft
5/13/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show #515, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a strategic masterpiece by Wesley So, who got a fine win with white over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov at the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest. | 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 #515

Wesley So is currently sharing the lead at the Superbet Chess Classic, which is the first event of this year’s Grand Chess Tour. The field is super strong, and 18-year-old top seed Alireza Firouzja is struggling to score wins.

Wesley So has two wins without losses, and both his wins featured the very fascinating theme of opposite-coloured bishops. Especially his first win against Mamedyarov, which is our Game of the Week, had a very modern touch to it.

Warm-up question: What would you play here with White?

 

This week’s show

Part 1

Part 2

The flexible Open Spanish

In this opening Black opts for active piece play and is not afraid to fight for the initiative from an early stage. One of the many good features of this opening is that Black is often the side which controls the pace of the game.

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Merijn van Delft is an International Master from the Netherlands who lived in Hamburg for many years and is currently based in Amsterdam. After scoring a GM norm in 2017 he is eager for more. His ChessBase show on Wednesday evenings has been running for over ten years now.