Game of the Week #692: Kourkoulos vs Schitco, European Team Championship 2025

by Merijn van Delft
10/9/2025 – The European Team Championship has started and we are spoiled every day with exciting matches between countries. Germany is number one seed with their dream team Vincent Keymer/Rasmus Svane/Matthias Bluebaum/Dmitrij Kollars/Frederik Svane, but the team of coach Jan Gustafsson is having a bumpy start in the tournament. Our Game of the Week is the masterpiece Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Greece) created against Ivan Schitco (Moldova) in the first round. | 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 #692

The European Team Championship has started and we are spoiled every day with exciting matches between countries. Germany is number one seed with their dream team Vincent Keymer/Rasmus Svane/Matthias Bluebaum/Dmitrij Kollars/Frederik Svane, but the team of coach Jan Gustafsson is having a bumpy start in the tournament. Our Game of the Week is the masterpiece Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Greece) created against Ivan Schitco (Moldova) in the first round.

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

This week's show

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

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Topics: The Game of the Week, Training and improvement
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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See also

Game of the Week #691: Rapport - Huschenbeth, Bundesliga 2025

10/2/2025 – The German Bundesliga season has started last weekend and as usual many world class players take part. These days there are several teams with incredibly strong line-ups, but Baden-Baden has had one for decades. For instance, Vincent Keymer is currently number 10 in the world and number 7 at Baden-Baden. Our Game of the Week is the instructive positional win by Richard Rapport with White against German top grandmaster Niclas Huschenbeth. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.
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See also

Game of the Week #690: Oro - Macias Pino, Leyendas Prodigios 2025

9/29/2025 – Two weeks ago we saw how 14-year old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus from Turkey stole the show in the first part of the Grand Swiss. This week it is 11-year old Faustino Oro from Argentina who scored his first GM norm with two (!) rounds to go, while passing the 2500 mark in the progress. He now has five months to break the world record for youngest grandmaster ever. While most of his games were tough fights, our Game of the Week is Oro's flashy win from the fourth round against Diego Macias Pino. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.
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Video

60m English The Austrian Attack

What to do against the Pirc? Many players find it difficult to play against Black’s set-up. Try the Austrian Attack! It is a solid but dangerous weapon and guarantees White an effective attack from the very start! Learn the key tricks of this deadly line and crush the Pirc with ease!