Game of the Week #697: Gukesh vs Svane

by Merijn van Delft
11/13/2025 – Only very strong players are left at this stage of the World Cup. Germany is doing great with still four top grandmasters at the final 32: Vincent Keymer, Matthias Bluebaum, Alexander Donchenko and Frederik Svane. The latter most impressively beat World Champion Gukesh, from India, in India, with the black pieces in the classical part of their mini match, which of course needs to be our Game of the Week. It is striking how Frederik sticks to his own active style against everyone. | 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 #697

Only very strong players are left at this stage of the World Cup. Germany is doing great with still four top grandmasters at the final 32: Vincent Keymer, Matthias Bluebaum, Alexander Donchenko and Frederik Svane. The latter most impressively beat World Champion Gukesh, from India, in India, with the black pieces in the classical part of their mini match, which of course needs to be our Game of the Week. It is striking how Frederik sticks to his own active style against everyone.

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

This week's show

Besides covering all the critical lines after 1.d4 & 2.c4, popular systems such as the Trompovsky, London/Jobava System, Torre Attack, Colle System and Veresov are dealt with as well.

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Topics: The Game of the Week, Training and improvement
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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See also

Game of the Week #696: Grooten vs Pijpers

11/6/2025 – The World Cup is quickly gaining momentum and most likely next week we will have a rich choice of games, but for this week we selected a game from the Dutch League. 15-year-old Tommy Grooten, who is the son of IM Herman Grooten and FM Petra Schuurman, is playing his first season in the highest league for Apeldoorn. Our Game of the Week is his first win against a grandmaster (Arthur Pijpers) and was conceptually very interesting, with a pretty finish. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.

See also

Game of the Week #695: Cheng vs Giri, European Club Cup 2025

11/3/2025 – The European Club Cup is always an interesting event, featuring all levels running from strong amateurs to absolute elite players. Both Germany's Vincent Keymer and Dutch Anish Giri used the opportunity to further rise in the world rankings, currently being 4th and 5th respectively. Giri started playing more aggressively recently, playing great Najdorf games against 1.e4. In our Game of the Week against Bobby Cheng he showed how you can attack with Black against the Catalan. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.

Video

60m English Anti-Bayonet

King’s Indian fans who choose the Mar del Plata attack (7...Nc6) against White’s classical system (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0) usually aim for a complex position with mutual attacks on open wings, requiring long-term strategic planning and tactical sharpness in critical moments. Computers often do not know how to handle the arising complex strategic positions, which suits players who like to think on their own instead of memorizing long variations. However, the fashionable Bayonet Attack (9.b4) interferes with Black’s ideas. After Black’s main move 9...Nh5 the positions opens, the lines get forced and computer analysis is important again. But this DVD offers an antidote against White’s Bayonet Attack, namely 9...a5! This move leads to sound positions with very few concrete lines, in which the focus is on strategy not on tactics. Objectively chances are equal but if Black knows what to do things might quickly become dangerous for White.