Game of the Week: Ivanchuk beats Leko with the King’s Gambit

by Merijn van Delft
7/22/2020 – In his “Game of the Week” show Merijn van Delft looks at a brilliant win by Vasyl Ivanchuk. In a must-win situation, the Ukrainian genius defeated Peter Leko with the seldom seen King’s Gambit! | Merijn’s show is freely available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) for a limited time, and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: sunwaychessfestival.com

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Game of the Week #421

Another great online event has started: the Legends of Chess tournament. While Kramnik and Anand seemed to be struggling with the online rapid format, Gelfand shone in the first round by beating Ding Liren 3:1. In the meantime, Carlsen beat Giri with a great novelty in the Ragozin, producing yet another impressive attacking game. But the Game of the Week was played by Ivanchuk, defeating Leko with the King’s Gambit, combining ancient concepts with truly modern ones.

Until the late 19th century the King’s Gambit was very popular, but today top level players employ it only rarely because according to theory Black has more than one way to equalize. However, players like Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, Judit Polgar and even Magnus Carlsen have employed it occasionally!


Spassky, Fischer, Polgar and Carlsen play the King’s Gambit

 

Select an entry from the list to switch between games


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

 

The live show is free to watch for a limited time, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium accounts.

This week’s show


Power Play 27: The King's Gambit

Glorious sacrifices, unexpected tactics and checkmating attacks. The King's Gambit is one of the oldest and most romantic openings in the game of chess. This DVD contains all you need to know to tackle your opponent.


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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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