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The Wijk aan Zee Chess Festival is generally regarded as the most successful chess festival in the world. In the same hall, the superstars meet the chess ‘rank and file’, enthusiastic amateurs who compete in open tournaments at different levels of play, but who also form the spectator backdrop for the Masters event.
The chess festival in Prague was modelled on the Wijk aan Zee tournament and was held for the first time at the Hotel Don Giovanni in 2019. The hotelier is a big chess fan. Just like in Wijk aan Zee in the best of times, three invitational tournaments take place concurrently: the Masters, the Challengers and the Futures, a tournament for talented young players.
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The organisers of the tournament are the Nový Bor Chess Club. The club was founded in 2001 with the aim of putting together a first-class international team. Nationally, Nový Bor is number one with ten championships. Internationally, the team is also successful, as they have won the European Club Cup twice, in 2013 and 2022, and have won silver five times.
Some of the players who take part in the Prague Chess Festival tournaments also play for the Nový Bor team, most notably the Czech number one David Navara, besides German number one Vincent Keymer.
Vishy Anand, the festival’s guest of honour, inspired a whole generation of Indian chess players | Photo: Petr Vrabec
The Prague Chess Festival has a special status this year, as it is one of the last major tournaments before the Candidates Tournament in April and three candidates are taking part. The Prague Masters is their dress rehearsal.
The three candidates that made their way to Prague all hail from India: Vidit, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa. Vidit is also a member of the Nový Bor team. Playing a major tournament before an even more important one is always a double-edged situation. On the one hand, the players want to save their opening surprises for a better opportunity, but on the other, they don’t want to get a bad result and perhaps provoke a crisis.
It remains to be seen how the three top Indian stars will handle this.
One of them was sitting opposite Vincent Keymer at his board today, Praggnanandhaa. The young Indian grandmaster is a year younger than Keymer, 18 years old, and his rating is a tad higher in the world rankings.
Praggnanandhaa and Keymer battled on the well-known terrain of the Giuoco Piano, following a game Keymer had played with black against Andrei Volokitin at last year’s Grand Swiss until move 10. Then Keymer provoked his opponent by playing ...g7-g5 in front of his king, which prompted an enticing struggle.
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Vincent Keymer struggling with a double-edged position | Photo: Petr Vrabec
This was not the only decisive game in the Masters. Nodirbek Abdusattorov came out of a rather tactical Catalan Variation against Thai Dai Van Ngyuen with a materially balanced position, but the Uzbek GM also had a strong pair of bishops. Abdusattorov won the game in 41 moves, as he is set to face Vidit with black in the second round.
The third win of the day went to Parham Maghsoodloo, who scored with the black pieces out of a Sicilian Defence against Mateusz Bartel.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov is now the highest-rated junior player in the world, and the world number 10 overall! | Photo: Petr Vrabec
Anton Korobov, the top seed in the Challengers, grabbed an early lead by defeating Vaishali (Pragg’s sister) with the white pieces in the first round. Abhimanyu Mishra and Ediz Gurel drew in the duel between the youngsters. All remaining encounters also saw the contenders sharing the point.
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In the second round, Korobov will play black against Czech IM Stepan Hrbek. Erwin l’Ami, the second seed, will play white against IM Finec Vlakav, also from the Czech Republic.
Erwin l’Ami during the opening ceremony | Photo: Petr Vrabec
