Pragg in Prague: Can he stop David Anton?

Three-way ties possible

The first edition of the Prague Masters and Challengers models itself after the Tata Steel tournament format in a variety of ways, but one of them is the idea to give local Czech grandmasters who don't necessarily have opportunities to compete against elite international competition a chance to shine. The plans already in the works for a 2020 edition include offering the top finisher in the Challengers tournament a spot in the Masters, as is the practice in Wijk aan Zee.

After eight rounds, David Anton Guijarro clearly has the best chance with a half point lead, and the white pieces in the last round. But Jan Krejci and Peter Michalik from the host country as well as Women's World Championship Ju Wenjun have theoretical chances to catch him.

Rk.		Name	Rtg.	Nt.	Pts.	n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	TB	Perf.
1	GM	Anton Guijarro,D GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 1 GM Alexei Shirov 0 1 2 GM Jan Krejci 2570 ½ 3 GM Michalik,P 2565 0 4 GM Ju,W 2580 ½ 5 GM Bartel,M 2600 1 6 GM Jiri Stocek 0 ½ 7 GM Nguyen,T 2546 1 8 GM David Paravyan 0 1 Ø 2572 5.5/8	2643		5.5	8		½	0	½	½	1		1	1	1	19.75	1749
2	GM	Jan Krejci GM Jan Krejci 2570 1 GM Michalik,P 2565 0 2 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 ½ 3 GM Bartel,M 2600 1 4 GM Jiri Stocek 0 ½ 5 GM Nguyen,T 2546 1 6 GM David Paravyan 0 ½ 7 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 1 8 GM Alexei Shirov 0 ½ Ø 2577 5/8	2570		5.0	8	½		0		½	½	1	1	½	1	17.75	1706
3	GM	Michalik,P GM Michalik,P 2565 1 GM Jan Krejci 2570 1 2 GM Ju,W 2580 0 3 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 1 4 GM Bartel,M 2600 ½ 5 GM Jiri Stocek 0 ½ 6 GM Nguyen,T 2546 ½ 7 GM David Paravyan 0 0 8 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 1 Ø 2579 4.5/8	2565		4.5	8	1	1		0	½		1	½	0	½	19.00	1977
4	GM	Ju,W GM Ju,W 2580 1 GM Nguyen,T 2546 ½ 2 GM Michalik,P 2565 1 3 GM David Paravyan 0 1 4 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 ½ 5 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 0 6 GM Bartel,M 2600 ½ 7 GM Alexei Shirov 0 0 8 GM Jiri Stocek 0 1 Ø 2577 4.5/8	2580		4.5	8	½		1		1	0	0	½	1	½	17.25	1654
5	GM	Jiri Stocek GM Jiri Stocek 0 1 GM David Paravyan 0 0 2 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 ½ 3 GM Alexei Shirov 0 1 4 GM Jan Krejci 2570 ½ 5 GM Michalik,P 2565 ½ 6 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 ½ 7 GM Bartel,M 2600 1 8 GM Ju,W 2580 0 Ø 2582 4/8	0		4.0	8	½	½	½	0		1	½		0	1	15.75	1936
6	GM	Alexei Shirov GM Alexei Shirov 0 1 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 0 2 GM Bartel,M 2600 1 3 GM Jiri Stocek 0 0 4 GM Nguyen,T 2546 ½ 5 GM David Paravyan 0 1 6 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 0 7 GM Ju,W 2580 1 8 GM Jan Krejci 2570 ½ Ø 2579 4/8	0		4.0	8	0	½		1	0		0	½	1	1	14.25	1934
7	GM	Praggnanandhaa,R GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 1 GM Bartel,M 2600 0 2 GM Jiri Stocek 0 ½ 3 GM Nguyen,T 2546 ½ 4 GM David Paravyan 0 ½ 5 GM Ju,W 2580 1 6 GM Alexei Shirov 0 1 7 GM Jan Krejci 2570 0 8 GM Michalik,P 2565 0 Ø 2572 3.5/8	2532		3.5	8		0	0	1	½	1		½	½	0	13.75	1565
8	GM	Nguyen,T GM Nguyen,T 2546 1 GM Ju,W 2580 ½ 2 GM David Paravyan 0 1 3 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 ½ 4 GM Alexei Shirov 0 ½ 5 GM Jan Krejci 2570 0 6 GM Michalik,P 2565 ½ 7 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 0 8 GM Bartel,M 2600 ½ Ø 2582 3.5/8	2546		3.5	8	0	0	½	½		½	½		1	½	12.50	1893
9	GM	David Paravyan GM David Paravyan 0 1 GM Jiri Stocek 0 1 2 GM Nguyen,T 2546 0 3 GM Ju,W 2580 0 4 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 ½ 5 GM Alexei Shirov 0 0 6 GM Jan Krejci 2570 ½ 7 GM Michalik,P 2565 1 8 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 0 Ø 2573 3/8	0		3.0	8	0	½	1	0	1	0	½	0			12.75	1843
10	GM	Bartel,M GM Bartel,M 2600 1 GM Praggnanandhaa,R 2532 1 2 GM Alexei Shirov 0 0 3 GM Jan Krejci 2570 0 4 GM Michalik,P 2565 ½ 5 GM Anton Guijarro,D 2643 0 6 GM Ju,W 2580 ½ 7 GM Jiri Stocek 0 0 8 GM Nguyen,T 2546 ½ Ø 2573 2.5/8	2600		2.5	8	0	0	½	½	0	0	1	½			9.75	1789
TBs: Sonneborn-Berger

Click or tap any result to jump directly to that game via live.chessbase.com

Here are the ninth round pairings on the top boards:

The tiebreak scenarios broadly come down to Anton's result. If he wins against Praggnanandhaa, of course he comes clear first. If he draws, then only Jan Krejci can catch him by beating Ju. The first tiebreak criteria is Direct Encounter, but Anton and Krejci drew their head-to-head which would send the tiebreak to the notoriously hard-to-calculate Sonneborn-Berger score. Anton's current S-B lead is substantial, however.

If Anton loses to Pragg, then it gets interesting: Peter Michalik has an outside chance, assuming of course he wins his last round game and Krejci only draws, as Michalik beat both his countryman and Anton in their head-to-head games.

If Ju beats Krejci, she can also reach 5½ to tie in case of an Anton loss. Ju beat Michalik and drew with Anton, so again we'd be back to Sonneborn-Berger, which favours Anton.

David Anton on the brink of winning 1st Prague Challengers | Photo: Macauley Peterson

The bottom line is, Anton should be happy with a draw, and he has White, but the question is what will Pragg do?

Pragg beats Ju and Shirov but then falters

In the middle of the tournament, the Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa was on a roll, scoring back-to-back wins against the current Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun and the legendary attacking player Alexei Shirov.

Ju and Shirov were Pragg's two Prague victims | Photo: Macauley Peterson

The Reliable Petroff

The Petroff (or Russian) Defence which is characterised by the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 has been popular at the highest levels for many years and enjoys the reputation of being an extremely solid defence.

In a Petroff, play followed the modern-practice of Nakamura vs Caruana, Aronian vs Caruana and Karjakin vs Giri, all from 2018 through 12...♝c5:

Here Pragg went his own way with 13.Bf4 and was nursing a small advantage throughout a long queenless middlegame until Ju made a misstep on move 37:

Ju had burned up too much time on the clock earlier and here she quickly played 37...♚e6 (Black needs to try to hold the position with the bishop pair after the undesirable exchange of rooks on d5) 38.♖e5+ ♚d7 39.fxg5 with a pawn-up ending that Pragg deftly converted.

Praggnanandhaa comments on the game for the Prague International Chess Festival YouTube channel

Praggnanandhaa vs Shirov was a charming duel of two generations and two temperaments.

Fortunately for Pragg, size is of no relevance at the chess board! | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

In an Italian game Shirov opened the position in the centre with early d7-d5. 

My Black Secrets in the Modern Italian

The Italian Game is considered a sound but quiet opening without early trades, giving rise to rich positions where plans are more important than forced variations. So shows black's plans on this DVD.

Here the Latvian-born Spaniard got himself into trouble with the careless move 11...f6 opening the light-squared diagonal to his King. Praggnanandhaa thought for 20 minutes and replied 12.d4!, which simply threatens 13.dxe5. On 12...exd4 would come 13.♕b3. Shirov instead gave a pawn with 12...♚h8 13.fxe5 ♝xf3 14. gxf3 ♞ce7 15.exf6 gxf6 but did not get enough compensation and suffered in a long ending. His young GM colleague patiently turned his advantage to victory.

After 60.e7, Shirov gave up, as there's nothing to be done about 61.♔g6 and 62.♗f7.

IM Sagar Shah annotates this game in detail in both written and video form below:

Learn from the Classics

Sagar Shah shows you on this DVD how you can use typical patterns used by the Master of the past in your own games. From opening play to middlegame themes.

And Action! - How to crown positional play by tactics

There are few names which, like that of Alexei Shirov, can be associated with fantastically imaginative and tactically influenced play. Now the Latvian grandmaster is presenting a DVD on precisely that element of the game of chess. And one that is completely based on his own games.

Another visual take on this game from artist Lubomír Zimniok

The next two games brought the young Indian GM back down to Earth, however. Against Krejci he was under pressure right out of the offbeat opening and it didn't let up:

The Czech GM played a strong exchange-sacrifice with 17.♕xb4 ♝xf3 18.♗xf3 ♝xa1 19.♖xa1 with a commanding position for White.

On Wednesday against Michalik, Pragg squandered a middlegame advantage and then was close to losing but fighting valiantly until he fell into a mating net.

Pragg played 63...♖h7, missing 64...♜b2+ 65.♔d1 ♚d3! (the rook was needed on h8 to give check on d8 and continue defending). 66.♔e1 ♝e3 67.♔f1 ♜f2+ is hopeless for White who soon had to throw in the towel.

Czech GM Peter Michalik still has an outside chance at first | Photo: Macauley Peterson

So round 9 — which you can watch below or live alongside the eighth round of the Masters —  will give Pragg a chance to redeem himself against the tournament leader David Anton. He's not generally one to give up an easy draw, so it could be an interesting finale.

Live games of Round 9

 

Live: European Womens-ch 2025

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0:09:39

Kochavi-Daulyte-Cornette

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1.e4 0.9 e5 8.9 2.Nf3 4 Nc6 7 3.Bb5 4 a6 16 4.Ba4 2 Bc5 21 5.0-0 17 Nge7 21 6.c3 1:07 Ba7 19 7.d4 1:44 Ng6 16 8.Be3 2:12 0-0 56 9.d5 13:03 Bxe3 2:48 10.dxc6 4:36 b5 11 11.fxe3 5 bxa4 6 12.Qxa4 49 dxc6 4:47 13.Rd1 9:40 Qe7 5:44 14.Qxc6 9:39 Rb8 1:01 15.b3 53 Rb6 16:28 16.Qc4 10 Nh4 1:15 17.Nbd2 6:22 Rg6 58 18.Nxh4 1:28 Qxh4 7 19.Nf1 47 Be6 25:11 20.Qc5 9:12 Qxe4 13:30 21.Ng3 5 Qc2 1:15 22.Qxe5 44 h5 42 23.c4 4:10 Bg4 6:40 24.Rdc1 2:13 Qd2 25 25.Qd4 37 Rd8 54 26.Qxd2 6 Rxd2 5 27.Kh1 14:17 h4 4:03 28.Ne4 7:21 Rb2 2:36 29.Rf1 1:01 Re2 9:42 30.Nc3 4:27 Rxe3 1:48 31.Nd5 4 Re4 1:48 32.Rfe1 44 Rge6 42 33.Rxe4 4 Rxe4 4 34.h3 18 c6 46 35.Nb4 26 Bc8 54 36.Nxc6 1:03 Re2 34 37.Nd4 26 Rd2 17 38.Nf3 5 Rc2 12 39.Nxh4 33 Bb7 15 40.Nf3 0 a5 0 41.Kg1 2:06 Bxf3 10:21 42.gxf3 6 Kf8 46 43.a4 19:29 Rb2 2:23 44.Rc1 2:13 Rxb3 58 45.c5 4 Ke7 54 46.c6 5 Kd8 12 47.Rd1+ 4 Kc7 7:12 48.Rd7+ 4 Kxc6 3 49.Rxf7 5 Rb4 1:17 50.Rxg7 5 Rxa4 3 51.Kg2 35 Kd6 19 52.Kg3 2:33 Ke6 12 53.h4 1:15 Kf6 14 54.Ra7 7 Kg6 45 55.Ra6+ 3:54 Kh5 1:05 56.Ra8 7 Kg6 2:57 57.Rg8+ 1:29 Kf7 1:44 58.Rg5 2:17 Ra1 1:19 59.Kf4 8 Ra4+ 13 60.Ke3 43 Rxh4 18 61.Rxa5 23 Kf6 30 62.Ra8 46 Rb4 37 63.Kf2 20 Kf5 30 64.Kg3 8 Rc4 1:37 65.Rf8+ 23 Kg6 20 66.f4 2:21 Rc1 1:03 67.f5+ 1:18 Kg7 7 68.Ra8 55 Kf6 40 69.Ra5 6 Rc4 14 70.Kf3 7 Rb4 5 71.Ke3 10 Rc4 6 72.Kd3 7 Rf4 5 73.Ke3 4 Rxf5 4 74.Rxf5+ 8 Kxf5 4

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St	White	EloW	Black	EloB	Res	Rnd	id

	Hebbar,E	2175	Belenky,N	1958		3.3	1330234
	Parligras,M	2507	Horvath,D	2543		10.1	1284963
	Smith,B	2374	Postlmayer,J	2403		10.1	1285076
	Kozak,A	2598	Kozul,Z	2507		10.2	1284964
	Schnider,G	2368	Markus,R	2595		10.3	1284965
	Korpa,B	2543	Fahrner,K	2266		10.4	1284967
	Krebs,J	2231	Subelj,J	2528		10.5	1284968
	Gschnitzer,A	2430	Ebner,H	2154		10.6	1284969
	Mihok,O	2536	Felsberger,A	2320		10.7	1285085
	Mons,L	2479	Costa,L	2510		10.7	1284971
	Deuer,M	2464	Handler,L	2444		10.9	1284975
	Bauer,S	2312	Rosner,J	2430		10.10	1284977
	Kadric,D	2533	Nguyen,T	2668		10.13	1284981
	Csonka,B	2459	Leisch,L	2407		10.13	1285094
	Pechac,J	2600	Petrov,N	2567		10.14	1284982
	Salvenmoser,S	2296	Gajek,R	2436		10.14	1285095
	Erdos,V	2542	Zilka,S	2515		10.15	1284984
	Perunovic,M	2501	Stalmach,R	2427		10.17	1284987
	Haba,P	2413	Ivanisevic,I	2527		10.18	1284988
	Nisipeanu,L	2579	Karthik Venkataraman	2565		10.19	1284990
	Stevic,H	2545	Schernthaner,D	2403		10.19	1285103
	Pajeken,J	2435	Michalik,P	2563		10.20	1284991
	Freitag,M	2342	Heinemann,T	2418		10.20	1285104
	Lanka,Z	2326	Janzelj,T	2404		10.21	1284992
	Sebenik,M	2491	Maiwald,J	2423		10.22	1284994
	Diermair,A	2445	Tabernig,B	2262		10.24	1284997
	Saric,I	2659	Dragnev,V	2538		10.25	1285001
	Banusz,T	2592	Brkic,A	2586		10.26	1285003
	Peyrer,K	2451	Bosiocic,M	2522		10.28	1285005
	Livaic,L	2536	Froewis,G	2429		10.29	1285006
	Balint,P	2366	Koellner,R	2499		10.30	1285007
	Sarana,A	2672	Vitouch,A	2271		10.32	1285009
	Shimanov,A	2578	Rubil,M	2276		10.34	1285012
	Lovrinovic,C	2062	Bacrot,E	2633		10.35	1285013
	Balogh,C	2542	Karelina,P	1903		10.36	1285014
	Webb,L	2217	Pert,N	2527		7.37	1287189
	Narva,M	2380	Khotenashvili,B	2418		6.1	1285266
	Maltsevskaya,A	2376	Kirtadze,A	2180		6.2	1285267
	Roebers,E	2367	Injac,T	2454		6.3	1285270
	Tsolakidou,S	2445	Bulmaga,I	2362		6.5	1285272
	Savina,A	2331	Arabidze,M	2447		6.7	1285274
	Toncheva,N	2329	Ushenina,A	2428		6.8	1285276
	Unuk,L	2301	Beydullayeva,G	2400		6.9	1285277
	Danielian,E	2398	Heinemann,J	2297		6.10	1285278
	Kochavi,D	2301	Daulyte-Cornette,D	2389		6.11	1285279
	Mkrtchian,L	2388	Smietanska,W	2254		6.12	1285280
	Zimina,O	2293	Vega Gutierrez,S	2380		6.13	1285283
	Wagner,D	2440	Velikic,A	2214		6.16	1285287
	Javakhishvili,L	2429	Wikar,M	2239		6.17	1285288
	Krasteva,B	2257	Fataliyeva,U	2387		6.18	1285289
	Gevorgyan,M	2234	Atalik,E	2375		6.19	1285291
	Kulon,K	2401	Hapala,E	2092		6.29	1285315
	Stefanova,A	2426	Vidic,T	2100		6.41	1285336
	Abrahamyan,T	2310	Lee,A	2386		3.2	1279479
	Chasin,N	2435	Muthukumar,H	2197		3.1	1330232
	Hoffman,L	2211	Bonin,J	2110		3.2	1330233
	Marzouq,C	1983	Dong,K	2006		3.4	1330235
	Shen,L	1998	Tse,W	1951		3.5	1330237
	Stancil,K	1919	Klenoff,C	2141		3.6	1330238
	Cheung,K	1934	Marsh,J	2058		3.7	1330240
	Chin,S	2084	Li,M	1823		3.8	1330242
	Yu,V	1885	Schaefer,S	2050		3.9	1330243
	Saxena,V	1913	Kurup,S	1965		3.10	1330244
	Macovei,A	2479	Harsha Bharathakoti	2538		2.1	1329915
	Bruzon Batista,L	2559	Daggupati,B	2461		2.2	1329916
	Juksta,K	2390	Quesada Perez,Y	2566		2.3	1329917
	Cordova,E	2514	Samant Aditya S	2495		2.4	1329919
	Dudin,G	2560	Kevlishvili,R	2536		2.5	1329920
	Batsuren,D	2515	Rodrigue-Lemieux,S	2505		2.6	1329921
	Cardoso Cardoso,J	2505	Kacharava,N	2521		2.7	1329922
	Wang,T	2355	Ozenir,E	2417		2.8	1329923
	Hodysh,Y	2401	Maghsoodloo,P	2684		10.31	1285008
	Gschiel,A	2317	Esipenko,A	2696		10.33	1285011
	Waldhausen Gordon,F	2361	Maroroa Jones,G	2654		7.41	1287193

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