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Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi started the Masters tournament in Prague as the top seed, but had a disastrous start: in round one he lost to Vincent Keymer, in round two he drew against Anish Giri and in round three he collected a second defeat against Aravindh Chithambaram. But then the tide turned, and he won convincingly against David Navara in round four.
In round five, he played with the black pieces against Sam Shankland, who was shipwrecked in the opening.
Wei Yi thus goes into the rest day with a 50% score and two wins in a row.
Before the fifth round, Keymer was the only player in the Masters who had not yet made a single draw. In round five, he played with black against Le Quang Liem and had a good chance of continuing this streak. Out of the opening, he gained the initiative, but was unable to exploit his advantage and found no way through against Le's good defensive efforts.
How to Avoid Mistakes and Boost Your Winning Rate
Doesn’t every chess game get decided by mistakes? Absolutely. But most players never truly comprehend that they are making the same kind of mistakes over and over again.
Vincent Keymer had a good chance, but Le Quang Liem managed to escape with a half point | Photo: Petr Vrabec
The top pairing of the round was the game between the two leaders, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Aravindh Chithambaram. But Aravindh, who played with black, avoided taking too many risks in this game and seemed content with a draw from the start. After a quiet start in a harmless variation of the Berlin Defence, Aravindh lost a pawn, but managed to escape into a drawn endgame.
The Indian duel between Aravindh Chithambaram and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu ended in a draw | Photo: Petr Vrabec
A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings Vol.1 & 2
This video course includes GM Anish Giri's deep insights and IM Sagar Shah's pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.
Anish Giri and Thai Dai Van Nguyen also drew | Photo: Petr Vrabec
Just like David Navara and Ediz Gürel | Photo: Petr Vrabec
This doesn't change anything at the top of the table - Praggnanandhaa and Chithambaram are still joint leaders with 3½ out of 5, a full point ahead of four players with 2½ out of 5.
Things were livelier in the Challengers, as three games ended decisively. And the games were exciting. In the encounter between Nodirbek Yakubboev and Jachym Nemec, for example, there were four queens on the board at some point, and as Yakubboev's queens were more active, he won the game.
The Spaniard Ivan Salgado Lopez also played for a win right from the start and tried to checkmate his opponent with all his might - and his strategy worked out well!
The Art of Initiative - The key to Opening Success
Unleash your chess potential with this dynamic course focused on mastering the initiative.
Rating favourite Yakubboev is alone at the top of the table with 4 out of 5 points. Jonas Buhl Bjerre follows half a point behind, while Salgado and Marc'Andria Maurizzi share third and fourth place with 3 out of 5 points.
Ivan Salgado | Photo: Petr Vrabec