Game of the Week #676: A. Erigaisi - V. Anand, London 2025

by Merijn van Delft
6/18/2025 – In the new episode of his Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft analyzes a game between two Indian players: Vishy Anand’s brilliant win against Arjun Erigaisi at the World Rapid Team Championship in London. Erigaisi went for an aggressive attack, but Anand kept his cool and countered effectively. | 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 #676

Over the past week, the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Championships took place in London, producing a wealth of spectacular games. Former World Champion Vishy Anand participated as well, demonstrating that he still possesses much of his former strength—especially in rapid chess.
Our Game of the Week features his flashy win with Black against Arjun Erigaisi. While White opted for dynamic and tactical play, Black kept a cool head and eventually seized the initiative.

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

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.