Navara, Jorden, Abdusattorov, Anton, Maghsoodloo win @ Prague

Posted on March 2, 2026 BY R.R. Vasudevan

Host GM David Navara (3.5/5) kept himself right behind leader GM Jorden van Foreest (4/5) who defeated the rising American star GM Hans Moke Niemann in the fifth round of the Prague International Chess Festival 2026 organised by Novy Bor Chess Club at Hotel Don Giovanni, Prague. GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and David Navara, with 3.5 points remained in the second spot, winning their respective games against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and GM Nodirbek Yakubboev.

GM Navara, a 13-time Czech national champion, continued his fine run defeating GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, keeping his shared second spot intact. The Catalan game between Navara and Yakkuboev was full of aesthetic beauty and will go down as a signature win for the Czech star. It comes as a relief to see GM Navara in great shape post 2024 cheating insinuations that pushed the Czech legend to the brink. In a crucial 6th round match up, Czech icon GM David Navara takes on leader GM Jorden van Foreest after a well deserved rest day. Stay tuned to watch a great fight between the lead runners’ – a sizzling Dutchman against a rejuvaneted Czech.

In another close English Opening encounter between GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov & Gukesh Dommaraju, the world champion’s painful passage at Prague continued, when a missed win boomeranged into a costly defeat. An advantage for black to the tune of -2.1 screamed Stockfish by move 30. It should have been quite handful for the world champion to land his first win in Prague Masters. But, for yet another time the Uzbek Grandmaster pulled the rug from under the feet of Indian, a story similar to the one between the duo at the 44th Chess Olympiad 2022 at Mamallapuram, Chennai. Two losses and three draws saw the Indian lose precious ELOs moving down to World No. 17 in LIVE rankings.

With a single slip GM Hans Moke Niemann did himself in against in-form GM Jorden van Foreest. Also winning their games were GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and David Anton Guijarro against GMs Vincent Keymer and Aravindh Chithambaram, on a spectacular day when all the day’s games ended decisively. After a day of rest, the sixth round starts by Tuesday, 3rd March at 9 AM ET / 3 PM CET / 7:30 PM IST.

Pairings (Round 6): Niemann – Keymer, Guijarro – Maghsoodloo, Gukesh – Aravindh, Yakubboev – Abdusattorov, van Foreest – Navara.

Results (Round 5): Jorden van Foreest (4.0) beat Hans Moke Niemann (1.5), David Navara (3.5) beat Nodirbek Yakubboev (2.0), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (3.5) beat Gukesh Dommaraju (1.5), V R Aravindh Chithambaram (1.5) lost to David Anton Guijarro (3.0), Parham Maghsoodloo (2.5) beat Vincent Keymer (2.0).

David Navara (2628) – Nodirbek Yakubboev (2691) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. O-O Nbd7 7. Qc2 a5 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bxf6 Nxf6 10. Nc3 c6 11. Rfd1 b6 12. e4 dxc4 13. Ne5 Bb7 14. Nxc4 b5 15. Ne3 Rc8 16. Rac1 Qb6 17. e5 Nd5 18. Ne4 Nb4 19. Qe2 Nxa2 20. Ra1 Nb4 21. Nf6+ Bxf6 22. exf6 Qd8 23. fxg7 Kxg7 24. Ng4 Ra8 25. Qe5+ f6 26. Qxe6 Bc8 27. Qe2 Qd6 28. Ne3 Bd7 29. d5 c5 30. Qxb5 Nc2

31. Qc6! Qe7 32. Qc7 Nxe3 33. d6 Qe6 34. Re1 Ra6 35. Rad1 Qg4 36. h3 Qa4 37. b3 Qxb3 38. Qxd7+ Rf7 39. Qxf7+ Kxf7 40. d7 Nxg2 41. Re7+ Kxe7 42. d8=Q+ Kf7 43. Rd7+ Kg6 44. Qe8+ Kg5 45. Qe4 f5 46. Rg7+ Rg6 47. h4+ Kf6 48. Qe7# 1-0

Complete Results

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Picture Courtesy: Petr Vrabec / Tomáš Krist / Prague Chess Festival 2026

Official Site: https://praguechessfestival.com/en/2026

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