Game of the Week #533: Firouzja vs. So

by Merijn van Delft
9/15/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show, Merijn van Delft looks at a razor-sharp encounter between Alireza Firouzja and Wesley So. A crucial game which shed some light on current top-level chess trends. | 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 #533

The Sinquefield Cup 2022 will always be connected to Magnus Carlsen’s withdrawal after losing with White to Hans Moke Niemann.

Anyway, the tournament continued with nine players, and in the end it was Alireza Firouzja who kept his nerves under control best, winning both the event and the Grand Chess Tour. His razor-sharp encounter against Wesley So was crucial and shed some light on current top-level chess trends — it is therefore our Game of the Week.

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

 

This week’s show

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.