Game of the Week #732: Nepomniachtchi vs Kvaloy

by Merijn van Delft
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.
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 #732

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.

Warming-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 #731: Martinez vs Le Quang

7/29/2026 – There is a lot of chess going on right now. While I'm playing in the first edition of the Amsterdam Chess Festival myself, there are elite events going on in Chennai and Biel. While Firouzja is leading in Chennai (beating Gukesh in the second round), Le Quang Liem is leading in Biel. Our Game of the Week is Martinez Alcantara vs Le Quang Liem, featuring the trendy 6...g5 in the Steinitz Deferred variation of the Ruy Lopez. For now the verdict seems to be: fully playable for Black. 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>.
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Game of the Week #729: Warmerdam vs Van Wely

7/8/2026 – This week at the Dutch Championship, Max Warmerdam surprised his former trainer Loek van Wely with a very nasty piece of homework in the 6.Bg5 Nbd7 variation of the Najdorf. In Dutch chess circles the game Arno Bezemer-Twan Burg, Meesterklasse 2011, is a well-known game from the early 6...Nbd7 days, featuring Velimirovic style attacking play. Max combined knowledge of this important old game with some new move order twists, making Black's job extremely difficult. 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>.
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Video

60m The Two Knights

This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.