Who will win in Prague?

by Johannes Fischer
6/30/2023 – The Prague Chess Festival is drawing to a close, but after eight of nine rounds the battle for tournament victory is still wide open. In the Masters, Bogdan-Daniel Deac (pictured) and Ray Robson lead with 5 out of 8 each, but theoretically five more players have a chance of sharing first place. In the Challengers, Mateusz Bartel is sole leader with 5.5 out of 8, but there are no less than three players within half a point of him. | Photos: Petr Vrabec
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Prague Chess Festival, Round 8

Masters

Romanian Grandmaster Bogdan-Daniel Deac was the winner of round 8. He scored a convincing win with Black against Thai Dai Van Nguyen to catch up with leader Ray Robson, who drew against David Navara.

Nguyen, Thai Dai Van26530–1Deac, Bogdan-Daniel2693
Prague Festival Masters 2023
29.06.2023[Johannes Fischer]
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6 7.0-0 Be7 8.b3 0-0 9.Bb2 Re8 10.Rc1 Bf8 11.d3 Bg4 12.Ne4 f6 13.a3 a5 14.Qc2 Qd7 15.Rfd1 Qf7 16.d4!? An interesting pawn sacrifice. Bxf3 17.exf3 exd4 18.f4 Rad8 19.Qd3 Qg6 20.Qf3 Qf5 21.h4 Qb5 22.h5 h6
23.Re1? White misses a good chance. 23.Qg4! Kh8 23...f5? fails to 24.Nf6+ Kh8 25.Qg6 gxf6 26.Bxc6! bxc6 27.Rxd4 with a crushing attack for White. 24.Nd2 and White has very good compensation for the pawn. 23...f5 24.Nd2 Rxe1+ 25.Rxe1 Na4 26.Bf1 d3 27.Be5 Nc5 28.Bxc7? White regains the pawn, but allows the black knights to take over. The engines recommend 28.Qd1 but this is a kind of move humans do not like to make. And after Ne6 Black would still be slightly better. 28...Nd4 29.Qg2 Rd7 30.Be5 Ncxb3 31.Rd1 Ne2+ 32.Kh2 Nbc1 33.Nf3 Qb3 34.Rd2 Bxa3 35.g4 Bb4 36.Rb2 Qf7 37.Qh3 d2 38.Nxd2 Rxd2 0–1

The second win of the day came from Pentala Harikrishna against Wang Hao. Harikrishna is now only half a point behind the two leaders Deac and Robson before the last round.

Pentala Harikrishna | Photo: Petr Vrabec

Wang Hao | Photo: Petr Vrabec

The other three games of the round all ended in draws.

So theoretically - if Deac and Robson both lose in the ninth and final round, and Harikrishna doesn't win - no fewer than seven players still have a chance of taking sole or joint first place.

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Prague Chess Festival and each of the previous winners of the Masters not only won prize money and prestige, but were also honoured with a portrait by the Czech painter and sculptor Ladislav Vlna. Vlna's portraits, however, are not classical paintings on canvas, but made of welded steel.

At the premiere of the Prague Chess Festival 2019, the winner was Nikita Vitiugov, who became Russian Champion in 2021, but has been living in Spain since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nikita Vitiugov | Picture: Ladislav Vlna | Photo: Claudia Mätzold

The Prague Chess Festival 2020 was won by Alireza Firouzja, currently the world number two according to the June 2023 FIDE World Ranking List.

Alireza Firouzja | Picture: Ladislav Vlna | Photo: Claudia Mätzold

The 2021 Masters was won by American grandmaster Sam Shankland. Shankland, like Pentala Harikrishna, has played in all five Masters tournaments in Prague.

Sam Shankland | Picture: Ladislav Vlna | Photo: Claudia Mätzold

The winner of the 2022 Masters is Pentala Harikrishna. He was born in 1986 in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh in India, but has been living in Prague with his wife, the Serbian Nadezda Stojanovic, since 2018. With a little luck, Harikrishna could repeat his 2022 success this year and become the first player to win the Prague Chess Festival twice in a row.

Pentala Harikrishna | Picture: Ladislav Vlna | Photo: Claudia Mätzold

Round 8 results

Standings after 8 rounds

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Challengers: Mateusz Bartel takes the lead

In the Challengers, there was a change at the top of the table: Hungarian GM Benjamin Gledura, who had been leading for a long time, lost to GM Paulius Pultinevicius from Lithuania in round 8, and Polish grandmaster Mateusz Bartel took advantage of this to take the lead.

In his game against Pultinevicius, Gledura was not greedy enough at the crucial moment:

Gledura, Benjamin26450–1Pultinevicius, Paulius2530
Prague Festival Challengers 2023
29.06.2023[Johannes Fischer]
1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.d3 Qc7 4.Nbd2 Bg4 5.h3 Bh5 6.g4 Bg6 7.Bg2 e6 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Qe2 Be7 10.Re1 Na6 11.Nh4 Nd7 12.Nxg6 hxg6 13.e5 Bg5 14.Nf3 Bxc1 15.Raxc1 Qd8 16.d4 Qe7 17.Qe3 Nc7 18.Ng5 0-0-0 19.b3 Nf8 20.f4 f5 21.Rf1 fxg4 22.hxg4 Nh7 23.Nf3 g5
24.f5? White refrains from taking the pawn, but in this case greed would have better. After 24.fxg5 Nf8 25.Rf2 Ng6 26.Rcf1 Rdf8 27.c3 White is a pawn up and clearly better. But after the move in the game it is Black who gets an attack. 24...exf5 25.gxf5 g4 26.Nh2 Qh4 27.Qf4 Ng5 28.Nxg4 Rdf8 29.Nh2 Qxf4 30.Rxf4 Nce6 31.Rf2 Nxd4 32.Rcf1 Ne4 33.Bxe4 dxe4 34.Re1 Rh4 35.f6 gxf6 36.exf6 Rf7 37.Kg2 Rfh7 38.Nf1 Nf3
39.Ree2 Allowing Black to mate him. The only chance was 39.Rxe4 and after Rxe4 40.Rxf3 Rh8 41.Ng3 Re5 Black still has to work to win. 39...Rg4+ 40.Ng3 Rh2+ 41.Kf1 Rh1+ 0–1

Bartel, on the other hand, managed a convincing attacking win against the Indian GM Akash:

Bartel, Mateusz26091–0Akash G2483
Prague Festival Challengers 2023
29.06.2023[Johannes Fischer]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Bc5 5.Nc3 Nge7 6.d3 d6 7.Be3 Bxe3 8.fxe3 b5 9.Bb3 Na5 10.0-0 Nxb3 11.axb3 Bg4 12.Qe1 0-0 13.Nh4 c6 14.Nf5 Qd7 15.Qh4 Bxf5 16.exf5 f6 17.Ne4 a5
18.Rf3 Whites leaves his queenside to its fate and puts his faith into an attack. Ra7 19.Raf1 a4 20.b4 a3 21.bxa3 Rxa3 22.Qh5 Ra2 23.g4 h6? Allowing White a powerful strike. Better and safer was 23...Qe8 and Black should be able to hold. 24.g5! hxg5 25.Rh3 Nd5 26.c4 bxc4 27.dxc4 Nc7
28.Nxg5! fxg5 29.f6! Qxh3 What else? White threatens 30.f7+ followed by 31.Qh8#, and the pawn on f6 is taboo. After 29...Rxf6 White has 30.Rxf6 gxf6 31.Qh8+ Kf7 32.Rh7+ Ke6 33.Qg8+ Kf5 34.Rxd7 and after 29...gxf6 Black is mated with 30.Qh8+ Kf7 31.Qxf6+ Ke8 or 31...Kg8 32.Rh8# 32.Qxf8# 30.Qxh3 gxf6 31.Qh6 Ne8 32.Qg6+ Kh8 33.b5 cxb5 34.cxb5 Ng7 35.Rc1 Ra7 36.b6 Rb7 37.Rc6 Ne8 38.e4 Rg7
39.Qxg7+! A nice end of a well-played game. Nxg7 40.b7 Ne6 41.Rc8 1–0

This puts Bartel half a point ahead of Gledura and Alexander Motylev going into the final round. In the final round, Bartel will play Pultinevicius with Black, while Gledura will play Motylev with Black. So everything is still up for grabs in the Challengers.

Round 8 results

Standings after 8 rounds

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A special tournament in Prague is the so-called Futures. Here young talents compete against each other and play alongside the participants of the Masters and Challenger to gain experience for later top tournaments.

The development of 13-year-old Czech FM Vaclav Finek shows how successful this concept can be. In 2020 he won the Futures, three years later he entered the Challengers where he did more than respectably and is ranked 7th to 8th after 8 rounds with 3.5 out of 8.

In 2023, 13-year-old Polish FM Patrik Cieslak, U12 European Champion 2022, has the best chance of winning the tournament. He leads with 3 out of 4 after four of five rounds.

Rk. SNo Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 5
FM CIESLAK Patryk POL 2280 3 0 4,00 3
2 1
FM WARCHOL Kamil POL 2082 2,5 0 3,75 1
3 4
BOUSKA Jiri CZE 2189 2,5 0 3,50 3
4 2
FM BALINT Peter AUT 2233 2,5 0 3,00 1
5 3
BROZKA Karel CZE 2180 1,5 0 3,75 2
6 6
JUHANAK Daniel CZE 2137 0 0 0,00 2

Patryk Cieslak | Photo: Petr Vrabec

An Open is also an integral part of the Prague Chess Festival. The winner qualifies for next year's Challengers. In this year's Open, three players are in the lead, with 7 out of 8 going into the final round.

Rk. SNo Name sex FED Rtg Club/City Pts.  TB1  K rtg+/-
1 3
GM Polak, Tomas CZE 2503 Sachovy klub Moravska Slavia 7 39,5 10 9,7
2 13
IM Fus, Jakub POL 2426 Polska 7 37 10 15,7
3 7
GM Sengupta, Deep IND 2473 7 36 10 9,7
4 1
GM Plat, Vojtech CZE 2516 SK JOLY Lysa nad Labem, z.s. 6,5 40,5 10 4
5 16
Psyk, Radoslaw POL 2417 6,5 39,5 10 11,3
6 32
IM Ozenir, Ekin Baris TUR 2374 6,5 39,5 10 19,3
7 33
FM Deuer, Marius GER 2374 Schoenaich 6,5 35,5 20 29
8 23
GM Jurcik, Marian SVK 2405 6,5 34 10 7
9 17
IM Baenziger, Fabian SUI 2414 6,5 32 10 3,4
10 37
IM Anwesh, Upadhyaya IND 2353 6,5 30 10 7,1
11 2
GM Mitrabha, Guha IND 2507 6 37,5 10 -4,8
12 69
FM Antova, Gabriela w BUL 2259 6 37,5 20 43,4
13 8
IM Sokolovsky, Yahli ISR 2464 Beer sheva 6 37,5 10 1,9
14 45
FM Pasti, Aron HUN 2335 Banyas SK Ajka 6 37,5 10 16,6
15 28
FM Agdelen, Huseyin Can TUR 2391 Turkiye 6 37 10 0,5
16 36
FM Domalchuk-Jonasson, Aleksandr ISL 2359 TR 6 37 20 19
17 30
IM Narva, Mai w EST 2387 6 36,5 10 4,4
18 76
FM Sharan, Rao IND 2248 Rao's Chess Corner 6 36,5 20 54
19 29
FM Yaniv, Yuval ISR 2390 6 36 20 5,4
20 26
IM Audi, Ameya IND 2393 6 36 10 1,7
21 20
FM Peyrer, Konstantin AUT 2411 6 36 10 4,4
22 9
GM Petrov, Marian BUL 2454 6 35 10 -1,7
23 106
CM Carreto Nieto, Giovanni MEX 2182 Mexico 6 34,5 20 52
24 18
IM Heimisson, Hilmir Freyr ISL 2413 Breiðablik 5,5 40 10 -0,8

...

And so excitement is guaranteed in all four tournaments of the Prague Chess Festival before the final round, which starts at 11 am local time on 30 June.

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".
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