Game of the Week #614: I. Nepomniachtchi - vs A. Firouzja

by Merijn van Delft
4/10/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at the Candidates and shows how Ian Nepomniachtchi instructively won against Alireza Firouzja in an Anti-Berlin. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

Game of the Week #614

Experience and patience seem to be the dominating factors in this heavyweight event, as Nepomniachtchi, who won the previous two editions, started well with 3.5/5 and after five rounds is sharing the lead with Gukesh.

He beat the Berlin Defence in both his White games, once by entering the notorious endgame and against Firouzja by playing a topical Anti-Berlin, which is our Game of the Week.

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

I. Nepomniachtchi vs A. Firouzja, Candidates Tournament, Toronto 2024
Position after 18...Qe8

This week’s show

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.
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