Prague Challengers: Finek beats Yuffa, leads by a full point

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
3/2/2026 – A clear leader has emerged in the Challengers tournament at the Prague International Chess Festival, as 16-year-old Vaclav Finek moved a full point ahead of the field after defeating Daniil Yuffa with the white pieces. Divya Deshmukh, meanwhile, scored her first win of the event, while the remaining games ended drawn. The players now get a rest day before the final four rounds of the event take place from Tuesday to Friday. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival
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Finek and Divya score wins

After five rounds of the Challengers tournament at the Prague Chess Festival, 16-year-old Vaclav Finek stands clear at the top of the table with a full-point lead. The Czech IM secured his third victory of the event on Sunday by defeating Daniil Yuffa with the white pieces, moving to 4/5. His remaining two games have both ended in draws.

Yuffa had been one of four players trailing Finek by half a point before the round began. The loss leaves him outside the chasing group, which now includes Thomas Beerdsen, Jachym Nemec and Stepan Hrbek, all of whom drew their games in the final round before the rest day and trail the leader by a full point on 3/5.

The key game between Finek and Yuffa turned on a strategic decision. Yuffa chose to exchange his dark-squared bishop, a trade that left the dark-square complex around his king significantly weakened.

Finek responded energetically, advancing his kingside pawns and maintaining pressure in a position where all six major pieces remained on the board.

With his opponent's king exposed, Finek gradually increased the tension and converted his advantage in convincing fashion.

The only other decisive result of the day was scored by Divya Deshmukh, who obtained her first win of the tournament by defeating Surya Shekhar Ganguly with the black pieces. Deshmukh thus returned to a fifty-percent score, recovering from her earlier setback against Zhu Jiner in round three.

The critical moment came when Ganguly opted for 19.Nxh7?, a knight sacrifice that did not yield sufficient compensation.

White could have gone for 19.Qh3 and, in fact, have a slight advantage. Instead, there followed 19.Nxh7? Qh5 (the refutation) 20.Nxf6+ gxf6 21.f3 Qxh2+ 22.Kf2 Qh4+ 23.Kf1

The black knight jumped from e7 to d5 and from d5 to c3 in the following two moves, forking the rooks to gain an exchange. Ganguly resigned the game on move 35.

Divya Deshmukh

Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

Among the three drawn games, the encounter between Zhu and top seed Benjamin Gledura stood out. Zhu agreed to a draw by triple repetition in a position that engines assessed as better for her, with an evaluation of around +1.3.

Given her difficult start to the tournament, which had seen her lose three of her first four games, the practical decision to secure half a point was understandable.

Zhu Jiner

Zhu Jiner | Photo: Tomáš Krist / Prague Chess Festival

Round 5 results

Standings after round 5

All games

Links

<< Is Gukesh calculating too much?
Prague Masters: Van Foreest wins again, Navara and Abdusattorov follow close behind >>
Topics: Divya Deshmukh, Prague Chess Festival 2026, Vaclav Finek
Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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