Prague R1: Keymer and Shankland start with wins

by Johannes Fischer
2/27/2025 – Vincent Keymer had a good start at the Masters section of the Chess Festival in Prague: he defeated top seed Wei Yi in Wednesday's first round. The second victory of the day was secured by Sam Shankland, who won against Ediz Gürel. The three remaining games all ended in draws. There were also two wins and three draws in the Challengers: the two winners were Jonas Buhl Bjerre, who beat Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis with black, and Ivan Salgado Lopez, who defeated Divya Deshmukh with white. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

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Two decisive games, a missed chance

Vincent Keymer got off to a good start at the Chess Festival in Prague, as he played a good game from start to finish against Chinese GM Wei Yi, who rarely loses and entered the Masters tournament as the top seed.

Wei Yi

It was a tough start for top seed Wei Yi | Photo: Petr Vrabec

Sam Shankland won the Masters in Prague in 2021 and would naturally like to repeat this success in 2025. He showed remarkable perseverance against the young Turkish grandmaster Ediz Gürel, who qualified for the event by winning the Challengers section in 2024.

Sam Shankland

Sam Shankland | Photo: Petr Vrabec

The three remaining games ended in draws, although Thai Dai Van Nguyen missed a very good opportunity to start the tournament with a win in his game with the black pieces against Aravindh Chithambaram.

Aravindh Chithambaram

Aravindh Chithambaram | Photo: Petr Vrabec

Round 1 results

Standings

All games

Challengers: Salgado and Bjerre score

The rating favourite in the Challengers is the Uzbek grandmaster Nodirbek Yakubboev. As luck would have it, he played against the second seed, China's Ma Qun, in the very first round. The game ended in a draw.

Meanwhile, both Jonas Buhl Bjerre, the third seed, and Ivan Salgado Lopez, the fourth seed, scored full points to become the early co-leaders.

Prague Chess Festival 2025

The playing hall | Photo: Petr Vrabec

Round 1 results

Standings

All games

Links

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Topics: Prague Chess Festival 2025, Sam Shankland, Vincent Keymer
Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".
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