Game of the Week #687: W. So - N. Abdusattorov, Sinquefield Cup 2025

by Merijn van Delft
9/5/2025 – In his latest Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft looks back at the Sinquefield Cup and presents Wesley So’s crucial win over Nodirbek Abdusattorov. So began the tournament with a string of draws, but in this game he displayed both creativity and a fine sense for positional nuance. | 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 #687

After Praggnanandhaa and Caruana had taken the spotlight in the earlier stages of the Sinquefield Cup, it was Wesley So who stole the show in the final phase and went on to win the playoff.

In round 7, So defeated Gukesh in the Ruy Lopez, and in the decisive final round — our Game of the Week — he surprised Abdusattorov with the Scotch Gambit. The encounter developed into a demanding positional struggle, with both players forced to find unusual solutions to fresh problems.

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.