Game of the Week #698: Yakkuboev vs Donchenko

by Merijn van Delft
11/20/2025 – By now only four players are left at the World Cup and even though it was impossible to predict their names, they are all very strong: Wei Yi, Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Andrey Esipenko. Three of them will qualify for the Candidates, so the remaining stage of the World Cup will be very tense. Only Yakubboev did not need a playoff in the quarterfinales, since he won a very instructive and impressive game with White against Donchenko, which is our Game of the Week. | 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 #698

By now only four players are left at the World Cup and even though it was impossible to predict their names, they are all very strong: Wei Yi, Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Andrey Esipenko. Three of them will qualify for the Candidates, so the remaining stage of the World Cup will be very tense. Only Yakubboev did not need a playoff in the quarterfinales, since he won a very instructive and impressive game with White against Donchenko, which is our Game of the Week.

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

This week's show

Besides covering all the critical lines after 1.d4 & 2.c4, popular systems such as the Trompovsky, London/Jobava System, Torre Attack, Colle System and Veresov are dealt with as well.

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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 #697: Gukesh vs Svane

11/13/2025 – Only very strong players are left at this stage of the World Cup. Germany is doing great with still four top grandmasters at the final 32: Vincent Keymer, Matthias Bluebaum, Alexander Donchenko and Frederik Svane. The latter most impressively beat World Champion Gukesh, from India, in India, with the black pieces in the classical part of their mini match, which of course needs to be our Game of the Week. It is striking how Frederik sticks to his own active style against everyone. | 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 #696: Grooten vs Pijpers

11/6/2025 – The World Cup is quickly gaining momentum and most likely next week we will have a rich choice of games, but for this week we selected a game from the Dutch League. 15-year-old Tommy Grooten, who is the son of IM Herman Grooten and FM Petra Schuurman, is playing his first season in the highest league for Apeldoorn. Our Game of the Week is his first win against a grandmaster (Arthur Pijpers) and was conceptually very interesting, with a pretty finish. | 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>.

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!