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For the first time in his career, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov entered the world top 10 on the live ratings list today. The Uzbek grandmaster defeated Thai GM Dai Van Nguyen in what was a combative first round of the Prague Masters.
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu won a very difficult game against GM Vincent Keymer in which the first 24 moves were set-up. GM Parham Maghsoodloo started with a victory with black pieces against GM Mateusz Bartel.
The second day begins Wednesday at 9 am ET / 3:00 pm CET / 7:30 pm IST.
Prague Masters | Round 1 Results
The Prague Chess Festival is now being held for the sixth time and this year is the strongest yet. Apart from other rising stars such as Abdusattorov and Keymer, the three Indian participants in the upcoming Candidates Tournament felt it made sense to include it in their calendar.
As part of a generation that seems to believe that playing is as important as training, Praggnanandhaa called it perfect timing: “Having a long break is not ideal, I think.”
Pragg, whose abbreviated name is pronounced almost the same as that of the capital of the Czech Republic, got off to an excellent start with a victory against Keymer. 11 days after the freestyle chess tournament, this game reminded us once again how deep preparation can be in classical chess.
Position after 9…Nh5.
Keymer’s ninth movement (9…Nh5) seemed provocative, because after 10.Bg5 Nf6 was giving his opponent two beats just so he could hit that white bishop with 11…h6 and 12…g5 Next: more signs of chess in the year 2024!
Praggnanandhaa did not shy away from the typical long-term sacrifice of pieces with 13.Nxg5, and soon the game became incredibly complicated. GM Viswanathan Anand, who participated in the broadcast for quite some time in his role as tournament ambassador, said he was not sure if he had done the same: “Very often I would talk myself out of it: ‘He must have done it.’ .prepared, then why am I checking this kind of thing?”
It was a difficult match for both players and, in fact, Pragg said afterwards: “I wasn’t sure what was going on.” He revealed that both players were in preparation until the 24th move, even though Keymer had already spent more than an hour on the clock there.
In addition to deep computer training, Praggnanandhaa also won this game thanks to his excellent play (especially 25.g3 and 26.g4!), as GM Rafael Leitao shows:
Pragg-Keymer sums up modern/future chess for me; Old opening, tons of information about the engine, complications so mind-blowing that timing problems arise immediately after independently dealing with the “sameness” of the machine.
-Jonathan Tisdall @gmjtis@universeodon.com (@GMjtis) February 27, 2024
After scoring 2.5/3 in the Bundesliga last weekend for his team SC Viernheim, Abdusattorov scored another victory today and one that was quite significant. This raised his rating to 2753.5, enough to break into the top 10 of live ratings. He also did well in Wijk aan Zee and in Weissenhaus, so the 19-year-old Uzbek is really on a roll.
Nguyen, 23, one of the two Czech participants, played quite well and came close to a tie. By offering a rook exchange on move 36, he might have felt relatively safe, and even Anand was briefly confused, but Abdusattorov had looked deeper and knew that the opposite-colored bishop endgame was winning:
Maghsoodloo was the first winner of the day. The Iranian grandmaster, Abdusattorov’s teammate in Viernheim last weekend (with a score of 2/3), had a disappointing tournament in Wijk aan Zee, so he will hope to do much better in Prague.
In his first match, Maghsoodloo had no problem calling against an old Moscow line played by Bartel. In fact, Black was already more comfortable on move 13, when the Polish GM forgot to open the a-file, and after that he was simply outplayed.
GM Richard Rapport was another player who came directly from the Bundesliga (achieving one win and two draws). The Hungarian-Romanian player escaped with a draw against GM Gukesh Dommaraju, who was probably welcoming the classic starting position after struggling a bit in Weissenhaus last week. The 17-year-old Indian GM missed an opportunity by more than half a point:
Anand just pointed out the best move 30.Ra1! at this point Gukesh played 30.Qd3?!, which seems to reveal most of the advantage! pic.twitter.com/8CWJeuDR9v
—chess24 (@ajedrez24com) February 27, 2024
GM Vidit Gujrathi tried for a long time, but could not break GM David Navara’s defenses, so the third Candidate also had to settle for a draw. In short, an excellent start to the tournament for the spectators.
When you just don’t want to make a tie… pic.twitter.com/esk4jQs4j2
—chess24 (@ajedrez24com) February 27, 2024
It should be noted that, just like in Wijk aan Zee, there is also a Challengers tournament (and even one for children, called Futures). There, we found some players who were also active in the Tata Steel Challengers, as well as the world’s youngest GM, Abhimanyu Mishra, and Praggnanandhaa’s GM-elect sister, Vaishali Rameshbabu.
Prague Challengers | Round 1 Results
The Prague Chess Festival 2024 will take place from February 27 to March 7 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format is all against all. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting with the first move.
How to watch?