Aravindh beats Giri, leads 5/7 @ Prague Masters

GM Aravindh Chithambaram (India) stepped up the gear with a brilliant win against GM Anish Giri (Netherlands) moving back into sole lead with 5.0 points after the seventh round of the Prague International Chess Festival 2025 organised by Novy Bor Chess Club at Hotel Don Giovanni, Prague. Fellow Indian GM Praggnanandhaa remained close behind at 4.5 points. Sharing the third spot with 3.5 points were GMs Shankland (USA), Wei Yi (China), Keymer (Germany) and Gürel Ediz (Türkiye).

At one point, it appeared that all the five games would produce results. But in the end, we had three winners viz., GMs Aravindh Chithambaram, Gürel Ediz and Shankland Sam while the games between Navara vs Keymer, Pragg vs Wei Yi ended in draws.

Chennai Grandmaster 2024 champion Aravindh Chithambaram continued his meteoric run scoring a fine win over Dutch GM Anish Giri. It’s a kind of win that would have made former world champion Alexander Alekhine proud. The Queen’s Gambit Declined game looked heading for a quiet day in the office for both Aravindh and Giri when the Indian decided to differ. In a balanced position, Giri went for a risky pawn advance 19. g4 when things swung the black way. When Aravindh went for 23…Qh4 little could anyone foresee the beauty of things to come. While 24. Qh2 might have kept things on hold, Giri chose 24. Kg2 when Aravindh threw a stunning knight sacrifice 24…Ng5 and followed it with machine like precision locking the win in 39 moves.

The stand out win against GM Anish Giri takes GM Aravindh past Indian legend Viswanathan Anand in the LIVE rating list. With an ELO rating of 2745.10 Aravindh is now World No. 14 one spot of ahead of Vishy Anand. With two rounds to go, Aravindh in his current form should be aiming to break into World Top 10.

In the Challengers section, GMs Yakubboev Nodirbek (Uzbekistan) and Bjerre Jonas Buhl (Denmark) led jointly with 5.5 points after seven rounds. Following the leaders were GMs Ma Qun (China) and Maurizzi Marc’Andria (France) at 4.0 points.

Round eight starts by Thursday, 5th March at 9 AM ET / 3 PM CET / 7:30 PM IST.

Gürel Ediz (2620) – Nguyen Thai Dai Van (2677) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. d3 Nd7 8. Be3 O-O 9. Nc3 Re8 10. a4 b6 11. Ne2 b5 12. Ng3 Bf8 13. Kh1 Nb6 14. b3 Bd7 15. Nd2 Bb4 16. f4 exf4 17. Bxf4 Bc3 18. a5 Nc8 19. Ra2 Be6 20. Nf3 Bg4 21. h3 Bxf3 22. Qxf3 Qd7 23. Ne2 Bb4 24. c3 Bf8 25. Bg3 f6 26. Nf4 Bd6 27. Nh5 Bxg3 28. Qxg3 Kh8 29. e5 Qf7 30. exf6 g6 31. Ng7 Rf8 32. Re2 Nd6 33. Ne6 Rae8 34. Ng5 Qd5 35. c4 bxc4 36. bxc4 Qxa5 37. Rxe8 Nxe8 38. c5 Qa2 39. Qe5 1-0

Giri Anish (2737) – Aravindh Chithambaram (2731) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bf4 Nf6 6. e3 Bf5 7. Nf3 c6 8. Nh4 Bg4 9. Qc2 Nbd7 10. h3 Be6 11. Nf3 Ne4 12. Bd3 f5 13. Bh2 O-O 14. O-O Kh8 15. Ne2 a5 16. Ne5 Nxe5 17. Bxe5 Bf6 18. f3 Nd6 19. g4 Qe7 20. Ng3 g6 21. Rae1 Bxe5 22. dxe5 Nf7 23. f4 Qh4 24. Kg2? (24. Qh2! fxg4 25. hxg4 Qxh2+ 26. Kxh2 where white can still fight for a draw)

24…Ng5!! 25. Rh1 d4!! 26. fxg5 dxe3 27. gxf5 gxf5 28. Rxe3 f4 29. Rf3 fxg3 30. Be4 Rxf3 31. Bxf3 Rf8 32. Qe4 Rf4 33. Qd3

33…Rxf3! 34. Qd8+ Kg7 35. Kxf3 Bd5+ 36. Ke3 Qe4+ 37. Kd2 Qf4+ 38. Kc2 Qf5+ 39. Kd2 Bxh1 0-1

Le Quang Liem (2739) – Shankland Sam (2670) 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Be7 8. f4 O-O 9. Kh1 Nc6 10. a4 Bd7 11. Nb3 e5 12. Be3 exf4 13. Rxf4 Be6 14. Nd5 Nd7 15. Nxe7+ Qxe7 16. Nd2 d5 17. Qg1 Rfe8 18. Raf1 Nde5 19. c3 Ng6 20. Bc5 Qg5 21. Qe3 Nxf4 22. Rxf4 Ne5 23. Kg1 Ng6 24. Rf3 Qxe3+ 25. Rxe3 dxe4 26. Nxe4 Bd5 27. Nd6 Rxe3 28. Bxe3 Rd8 29. Bc5 Nf4 30. Bf1 b6 31. Ba3 a5 32. Kf2 g6 33. g3 Ne6 34. Bb5 f5 35. Ke3 Nc5 36. Ne8 Kf7 37. Nc7 Ne6 38. Nxd5 Rxd5 39. b4 g5 40. bxa5 bxa5 41. Ke2 Re5+ 42. Kf1 Nc5 43. Bc1 Kg6 44. Bd2 Ne4 45. Be1 Nd6 46. c4 Re4 47. Bxa5 Nxb5 48. cxb5 Rxa4 49. Bc7 Rb4 50. b6 Rb2 51. Ke1 Kf7 52. Kd1 Ke6 53. Kc1 Rb5 54. Kd2 Kd5 55. Kd3 Rb3+ 56. Kc2 Kc4 57. Kd2 Kd4 58. Kc2 Rb5 59. Kd2 Ke4 60. Kc3 f4 61. gxf4 gxf4 62. Kc4 Rb1 63. Kc5 f3 64. Bg3 Ke3 0-1

Masters (Round 7 Results): Gürel Ediz (3.5) bt Nguyen Thai Dai Van (2.5), Navara David (3.0) drew with Keymer Vincent (3.5) , Le Quang Liem (3.0) lost to Shankland Sam (3.5), Giri Anish (3.0) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (5.0), Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (4.5) drew with Wei Yi (3.5)

Challengers (Round 7 Results): Yakubboev Nodirbek (5.5) bt Salgado Lopez Ivan (3.5), Divya Deshmukh (1.5) lost to Bjerre Jonas Buhl (5.5), Ma Qun (4.0) drew with Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis (3.0), Stalmach Richard (3.0) drew with Finek Vaclav (3.0), Maurizzi Marc’Andria (4.0) bt Nemec Jachym (2.0)

Picture Courtesy: Vijay Rajendran @ Prague Chess Festival

Official Site: https://praguechessfestival.com/en/2025