Game of the Week #701: Erdogmus vs MVL

by Merijn van Delft
12/16/2025 – The Clash of Generations II featured a six game match between 34-year-old former number two of the world Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and 14-year old super talent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. The result was amazing: Erdogmus hardly experienced any problems at all, comfortably drew five of the games and even won one! This remarkable fifth game of the match is our Game of the Week, it saw the suprising use of the Ruy Lopez exchange variation and turned into a positional masterpiece. | 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 #701

The Clash of Generations II featured a six game match between 34-year-old former number two of the world Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and 14-year old super talent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. The result was amazing: Erdogmus hardly experienced any problems at all, comfortably drew five of the games and even won one! This remarkable fifth game of the match is our Game of the Week, it saw the suprising use of the Ruy Lopez exchange variation and turned into a positional masterpiece.

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.

Watch previous shows

Recent shows

Many more Game of the Week shows are available in ChessBase Videos

At the airport, in the hotel or at home on your couch: with the new ChessBase you always have access to the whole ChessBase world: the new ChessBase video library, tactics server, opening training App, the live database with eight million games, Let’s Check and web access to playchess.com

Links

<< Weakpoint f7
Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Benko Gambit with 5...e6 >>
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.
Discussion and Feedback Submit your feedback to the editors

See also

Game of the Week #700: Abdusattorov vs Mishra

12/4/2025 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov recently went through a rough phase, dropping in the world rankings from #4 to #17, but right now at the London Chess Classic he is celebrating a major comeback. In the first round Jones forced a draw with White right in the opening, but after that Abdusattorov scored six wins in a row, all against strong grandmasters. Our Game of the Week is his second round win against Mishra, in an extremely theoretical battle in the Archangelsk Variation of the Ruy Lopez. | 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>.
More...
 2

See also

Game of the Week #699: Esipenko vs Yakubboev

12/2/2025 – The World Cup in Goa has come to an end, and the surprising winner is 19-year old Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan. In the final he beat Wei Yi in a very tense playoff. In our Game of the Week video we will focus on the fight for the third ticket to the Candidates between Esipenko and Yakubboev. The latter had played a very impressive World Cup so far, but after something went wrong in the opening in the first game, the tension quickly increased and Esipenko showed his class. | 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>.
More...
 2

Video

60m English Anti-Bayonet

King’s Indian fans who choose the Mar del Plata attack (7...Nc6) against White’s classical system (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0) usually aim for a complex position with mutual attacks on open wings, requiring long-term strategic planning and tactical sharpness in critical moments. Computers often do not know how to handle the arising complex strategic positions, which suits players who like to think on their own instead of memorizing long variations. However, the fashionable Bayonet Attack (9.b4) interferes with Black’s ideas. After Black’s main move 9...Nh5 the positions opens, the lines get forced and computer analysis is important again. But this DVD offers an antidote against White’s Bayonet Attack, namely 9...a5! This move leads to sound positions with very few concrete lines, in which the focus is on strategy not on tactics. Objectively chances are equal but if Black knows what to do things might quickly become dangerous for White.