Strong field at the Open in Prague

by Johannes Fischer
3/1/2024 – The Masters and Challengers are the focus of the Prague Chess Festival, but the Open also has a strong line-up and an attractive field. GM Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaijan (Elo 2614) tops the seeding list, followed by Indian GM S.P. Sethuraman in second place, 11 Elo points behind. A total of 263 players are competing in Prague, including well-known streamers Andrea and Alexandra Botez and Dina Belenkaya, who are broadcasting their games live with commentary. | Photo: Petr Vrabec
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The top favourites got off to a good start in Prague and after two rounds Safarli, Sethuraman and 47 other players are leading the field with 2.0/2 .

In round 2 Safarli scored a nice win in the Grünfeld.

The Gruenfeld Defence is a popular opening for fighting players. Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov liked to play it, Peter Svidler, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri like to play. On this DVD Lubomir Ftacnik shows why the Gruenfeld is such an attractive and strong opening.

However, it is the Botez sisters and Dina Belenkaya who receive the most attention during the tournament. Regardless of where they stand in the tournament, the three streamers always play on the same three boards, with their games recorded by a camera placed next to the board. The games are then streamed live on Twitch and shown to the online community. Norwegian grandmaster Jon-Ludvig Hammer comments the games of Alexandra and Andrea, while American grandmaster Ben Finegold follows the games by Belenkaya.

Alexandra Botez, whose Elo rating of 1977 is just above the tournament average of 1975, started the tournament with a loss and a draw, as did her sister Andrea, who has an Elo rating of 1708.

Alexandra Botez at the start of her game in round two. She has White against Romi Milner from the US.

Dina Belenkaya, a WGM with an Elo rating of 2164, won against German Vito Gierhardt in round one and lost to Brazilian GM Evandro Amorim Barbosa in round two.

After round 1, Belenkaya commented on her win against Gerhardt in the tournament hall on a "real" - and not a digital - board.

The third round of the Open begins on Friday, 1 March at 3 pm.

Standings after two rounds

Rk. SNo Name FED Rtg Club/City Pts.
1 1
GM Safarli, Eltaj AZE 2614 2
2
GM Sethuraman, S.P. IND 2603 2
4
IM Amar, Elham NOR 2567 OSS 2
5
GM Li, Di CHN 2563 2
6
GM Kourkoulos-Arditis, Stamatis GRE 2556 2
10
GM Popovic, Dusan SRB 2504 Spartak Subotica 2
13
IM Maksimovic, Bojan BIH 2497 2
15
GM Barbosa, Evandro Amorim BRA 2491 2
18
GM Simacek, Pavel CZE 2463 SK ZIKUDA Turnov, z.s. 2
19
IM Muthaiah, AL IND 2454 2
21
IM Zhao, Yuanhe CHN 2449 2
22
IM Harikrishnan.A.Ra, IND 2443 Chennai 2
24
GM Neverov, Valeriy UKR 2438 2
26
FM Kalogeris, Ioannis GRE 2429 Panathinaikos Chess Club 2
27
IM Ilamparthi, A R IND 2414 2
29
IM Xiang, Zeyu CHN 2407 2
32
IM Sofronie, Iulian ROU 2395 ASOCIATIA CLUB SPORTIV LOGIC 64 BRA 2
33
IM Harshavardhan, G B IND 2392 2
34
GM Neuman, Petr CZE 2390 Cesky lev Kolesovice-sachovy klub, 2
35
FM Shagbazyan, Taron UKR 2388 Чехия 2
36
FM Ivanov, Mike CAN 2382 Canada Chess Youth Club 2
38
FM Svanda, Ondrej CZE 2369 Slavia Kromeriz 2
40
FM Abdilkhair, Abilmansur KAZ 2357 2
42
FM Kusa, Jakub CZE 2348 Sachovy klub Moravska Slavia 2
44
FM Jares, Michal CZE 2346 2222 SK Polabiny, z.s. 2
46
FM Mis, Mieszko POL 2325 Poland 2
47
FM Chinguun, Sumiya MGL 2319 Aldar Mongolia 2
57
FM Senthil, Maran K IND 2275 India 2
58
FM Daakshin, Arun IND 2274 India 2
60
Walek, Petr CZE 2266 TJ Neratovice 2
61
FM Novotny, Michal CZE 2265 Chess club Pisek, z.s. 2
32 7
GM Heberla, Bartlomiej POL 2552 Šachový klub Moravská Slavia 2
8
GM Bharath, Subramaniyam H IND 2515 2
9
GM Polak, Tomas CZE 2506 Sachovy klub Moravska Slavia 2
14
GM Quintiliano, Renato R. BRA 2493 2
17
IM Stoyanov, Tsvetan BUL 2465 2
20
IM Isik, Alparslan TUR 2452 2
23
IM Kilic, Eray TUR 2439 2
45
Roubalik, Jakub CZE 2343 Sachovy klub Moravska Slavia 2
54
WIM Balabayeva, Xeniya KAZ 2282 KazChess 2
63
FM Vojta, Jakub CZE 2251 1. Novoborsky SK 2
82
CM Assylov, Miras KAZ 2176 2
43 31
IM Nguyen, Piotr POL 2404 Dwie Wieże Kraków 2
65
IM Saravana, Krishnan P. IND 2246 KVB 2
102
Mametev, Artem CZE 2091 SK 64 Plzen 2
114
Panjer, Sidney GER 2059 Krefelder SK Turm 1851 2
124
FM Valenta, Vit Vaclav CZE 2021 Individualni clen SSOK 2
126
Dushatov, Timur KAZ 2016 Kazakhstan 2
49 64
CM Deveci, Huseyin Said TUR 2250 2
50 3
GM Bernadskiy, Vitaliy UKR 2572 1,5

... 263 participants (Source: chess-results)

Games

Tournament page

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".