Positions curated by Yochanan Afek

The Prague International Chess Festival is a true celebration of the game, offering a wide range of events catering to different formats and playing styles. In addition to the traditional Masters, Challengers, Futures, Open, Rapid and Blitz tournaments, the festival includes unique competitions such as Basque Chess, Fischer Random, Pair Blitz, Bughouse and a Chess Solving competition. This diversity ensures that players and enthusiasts of all interests find engaging opportunities to participate.

The Endgame Academy Vol.1: Checkmate & pawn endgames

From Mating with a queen; a rook; two bishops; a knight and a bishop; to the basics of pawn endgames – here you will gain the necessary know-how to turn your endgame advantages into victories!

On Friday, 28 February 2025, the festival hosted the solving competition. Milan Petras won the event with a score of 55 points, while Dimitra Amiridou from Greece secured second place with 50 points. Sahib Hasanzada from Azerbaijan finished in third place with 43 points.

A distinguishing feature of this year's competition was that all positions were curated by Yochanan Afek, the legendary Israeli Grandmaster in Chess Composition, adding prestige to the event.

This was the second time the solving competition was included in the Prague Festival, as participants had the unique opportunity to tackle problems composed by Afek. The challenge consisted of solving seven positions within a 90-minute time limit, with a maximum possible score of 65 points. Prize winners received material rewards for their performances, making the experience even more rewarding.

See all problems below...

Interview with Yochanan Afek for ChessBase India

Photo gallery

All photos by Petr Vrabec

Chief organiser Petr Boleslav hands the prizes to tournament winner Milan Petras

Dimitra Amiridou finished second with 50 points

Master Class Vol.14 - Vasily Smyslov

Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.

Sahib Hasanzada finished third with 43 points

Yochanan Afek sharing the instructions

Solvers getting ready

Time to solve!

Magical Chess Endgames Vol. 1 & 2 + The magic of chess tactics

In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.

Solvers of all ages are welcome to participate

The problems

If you wish to evaluate your performance with a clock, this is what you need to know.

Total time to solve: 90 minutes.

1. In the mate-in-two problems, diagrams 1-3, the key (first move by White) is sufficient for a complete solution.
2. In the mate-in-three problems, diagrams 4-5, the key (the first move by White) and all variations against the threat with White's second move are sufficient for a complete solution.
3. In the endgame studies, diagrams 6-7, the main lines until an evident win or draw are sufficient for a complete solution.

Click here for the solutions...

Links

• Official site
• Impressive Aravindh wins Prague Masters with 2830 TPR (2025)
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov wins Prague Masters with a round to spare (2024)
• Robson beats Deac in exciting playoff, wins Prague Masters (2023)
• Harikrishna and Keymer clinch Prague Festival titles (2022)
• Shankland wins Prague Masters after dramatic final round (2021)
• Alireza Firouzja wins Prague Masters in blitz playoff (2020)
• Vitiugov victorious in Prague Masters (2019)