Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Game of the Year?

by Robert Ris
6/29/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris takes a look at a candidate for the "Game of the Year" 2025: Richard Rapport's creative attacking win against Praggnanandhaa at the UzChess Cup in Tashkent. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
This video course offers you a complete, clear repertoire for Black against the moves 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. The recommended variations are easy to learn and not difficult to remember, but also pose White serious challenges.

Robert Ris: "I have a look at perfect candidate for the Game of the Year: Praggnanandhaa-Rapport from the UzChess Cup Masters.

In a Sämisch Variation of the King's Indian Defence, Black played very energetically by making sacrifices one after another. Truly impressive, which reminded us of the golden years of this opening when Garry Kasparov destroyed so many world class players in similar style.

In the present game, Pragg was not able to withstand the pressure, enabling to deliver an absolute dynamical masterpiece. One for the books!"

Exercise: White is about to take on b4 and consolidate its extra pawn. Can you see Black's amazing idea turning the game around?

Praggnanandhaa - R. Rapport, Uzbek Chess Cup, Tashkent 2025
Black to play

Feel free to move the pieces on the live diagram!

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Topics: Fast and Furious
Robert is an International Master who mostly spends his time training and coaching talented youngsters. On the PlayChess server The Fast and the Furious is a popular show where he explains sharp opening lines for a wider audience. He is also a well-known ChessBase author who produced numerous DVDs and regularly contributes to ChessBase Magazine as well. Since 2015 he is the organizer of the Dutch Rapid Championships in his home town Amstelveen. He has started a YouTube channel with chess analysis as well.
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See also

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: A quick win with the Pirc

6/21/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris takes a look at the game Nodirbek Yakubboev vs Arjun Erigaisi from the UzChess Cup Masters in Tashkent. In the first round of the tournament Erigaisi decided to try the Pirc Defence against Yakubboev and was rewarded with a surprisingly quick and easy win. | Fast & Furious 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>.

See also

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: A tricky sideline

6/16/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris has a look at an interesting line of the English that helped Andrew Hong to win against Boris Gelfand in just 22 moves at the World Rapid Teams in London. | Fast & Furious 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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60m English A solid scandinavian surprise

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!

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