Game of the Week #656: M. Warmerdam - Gukesh, Tata Steel 2025

by Merijn van Delft
2/1/2025 – In his new Game of the Week show Merijn van Delft takes a look at the performance of World Champion Gukesh at the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and wonders how risky Gukesh plays. | 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 #656

Ten rounds have now been played in the Tata Steel Masters and Gukesh, the new world champion, is well on his way to winning the Wimbledon of chess. The biggest challenge seems to be taking just the right amount of risk. Erigaisi is no longer getting away with his usual excessive risk and is tied for last place. Gukesh has also had two lost positions so far, but has not lost either, and our game of the week is his ambitious game against Warmerdam.

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

M. Warmerdam - Gukesh, Tata Steel Tournament Wijk aan Zee 2025
Position after 12...b4

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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