Game of the Week #683: M. Van Delft - L. Merz, Vlissingen Open 2025

by Merijn van Delft
8/7/2025 – In the new episode of his Game of the Week show, Merijn Van Delft shows how it helps to know typical patterns and instructive games in the lines you play. | 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 #683

Merijn Van Delft: "Last week, we analyzed the impressive model game Albers-Leenhouts, in which White first destroyed Black's hopes of a dynamic counterattack with 6.g3 against the Najdorf and then gradually started dominating the game himself.

Such an example is naturally inspiring, so I tried it myself at the tournament in Vlissingen. It worked out well against my young and dangerous opponent Leander Merz, so this second example of last week's theme is our Game of the Week."

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

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.