Five decisive games
Round three of the Challengers tournament at the Prague Chess Festival saw all five games ending decisively. After three decisive games in each of the first two rounds, Friday's action raised the temperature further and led to shifts in the standings.
The most consequential result came on the top board, where former sole leader Stepan Hrbek suffered defeat at the hands of 16-year-old Vaclav Finek. Hrbek, the lowest-rated player in the field, came from winning his first two games, but was unable to hold his position against his younger compatriot (Hrbek is 20 years old).
Finek's victory lifted him to 2½/3 points and into sole first place. His tournament began with a draw against second seed Jonas Buhl Bjerre, followed by a win over Jachym Nemec in round two, and Friday's success confirmed him as the early pace-setter.
In the first part of the video series, we will look at White’s four main moves: 6. Bg5, 6. Be3, 6. Be2 and 6. Bc4.
Stepan Hrbek | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival
Four players are now tied for second place on 2 points, just half a point behind the leader: Bjerre, Nemec, Hrbek and Thomas Beerdsen. Notably, none of the players belonging to this group has drawn a game so far in the event - all four have recorded two wins and one loss in the opening three rounds.
In the direct encounter between two of the chasers, Bjerre defeated Beerdsen with the black pieces. The Danish grandmaster gradually outplayed his opponent in a demanding endgame featuring a rook, a bishop and five pawns each, eventually converting his positional edge after sustained pressure in the technical phase of the game.
Jonas Buhl Bjerre during round two | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival
Another notable result saw Jachym Nemec score an upset victory with black against Surya Ganguly. Ganguly adopted an adventurous approach in a Petroff Defence, but his 17-year-old opponent responded confidently, seizing the initiative and building a clear positional advantage. Nemec later demonstrated good judgement by giving up the exchange on move 23, a decision that proved key to converting his advantage.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.The remaining two games of the round also produced decisive outcomes. Daniil Yuffa returned to a fifty-percent score by defeating top seed Benjamin Gledura with the white pieces, while Zhu Jiner rebounded from two losses at the start of the tournament by defeating Divya Deshmukh in the game between the two female participants in the field.
Zhu Jiner bounced back from consecutive losses in the first two rounds by beating Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival
Round 3 results
Standings after round 3
All games
Links
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