Deshmukh, Gledura: Hand & Brain - The tactic everyone missed

by Arne Kaehler
3/26/2026 – At the Prague International Chess Festival 2026, the popular Hand & Brain format followed right after the main event, bringing together Grandmasters, Challengers, Futures players, celebrities, and sponsors in mixed teams for four entertaining rounds. Among the standout games was the pairing of Divya Deshmukh & Christina Jordan against Bao Anh Angelina Nguyen Doan & Benjamin Gledura. The game seemed firmly in White’s hands before the momentum shifted dramatically, turning into a commanding position for Black. In a remarkable finish, Gledura discovered a brilliant tactical idea that everyone else at the table missed—including his own partner.
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti

Hand & Brain at the Prague International Chess Festival

Gledura's tactical genius

In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can't go on without tactics. So it is vital to train tactics properly - and Master Class Tactics offers you the perfect tool for this!

In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.

In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike, because nothing is more annoying than missing a winning combination in the decisive situation, and thus giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game. So it is vital to train tactics properly - and Master Class Tactics offers you the perfect tool for this! On this Fritztrainer, IM Oliver Reeh has compiled his favourites from the CBM column “Tune your Tactics” issues 219 to 227.
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What the heck is Hand & Brain?

Hand & Brain is a chess variant played in teams of two, where one player, the “Brain,” decides which type of piece should be moved, while the other player, the “Hand,” chooses the exact move on the board.

For example, if the Brain says “Knight,” the Hand can move either knight to any legal square. This creates a unique mix of strategy and unpredictability because even strong ideas can be executed in unexpected ways.

As a result, games often become chaotic and full of surprising twists, which is precisely why dramatic turnarounds happen so often in this format.

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Topics: Alessi, Gukesh, Parham Maghsoodloo, schirmherr, Surya Ganguly, Vincent Keymer
Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.