Abdusattorov’s title hat-trick, London, Wijk aan Zee & now Prague

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, is the man of the moment, clinching his third Super Grandmaster title in a row winning the Prague Masters 2026 with a 6/9 score at Hotel Don Giovanni, Prague. Sharing the second place were GMs Parham Maghsoodloo, Aravindh Chithambaram and Jorden van Foreest with 5.0 points. Organised by Novy Bor Chess Club this traditional hallmark Czech event ran from 25th February to 6th March, 2026.

It was a heart-break for Grandmaster duo – Jorden van Foreest & David Navara – who both were in title race until the penultimate round. Both lost an even position in the last but one round and crashed totally in the final round. “So near yet so far” will apply for Jorden and Navara as chess rolls on.

A quick draw in the final round against GM Hans Moke Niemann was more than enough for GM Abdusattorov to clinch his second Prague title. The Uzbek star is going through the best time of his life, moving upto World No. 4 and touching ELO 2780 in LIVE ratings. The Uzbek star has now won three in a row in December, January and February viz., the London Chess Classic 2025, TATA Steel Wijk aan Zee and Prague Masters 2026.

Rest of the Masters group matches were hard fought with GMs Parham Maghsoodloo, Aravindh Chithambaram, Gukesh Dommaraju, Nodirbek Yakubboev winning against GMs Jorden van Foreest, David Navara, David Anton Guijarro, Vincent Keymer respectively.

Former Asian Champion 3rd seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2538) won the Karel Janeček Open with 8/9 score. With 7 wins and 2 two draws the Indian Olympiad star logged in an impressive ELO 2688 rating performance. 357 players from 49 federations including 11 GMs, 5 WGMs, 23 IMs and 4 WIMs participated in this prestigious Open that ran parallel to the Prague Masters 2026.

Final Rankings: 1. Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) 6.0, 2-4 Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran), V R Aravindh Chithambaram (India), Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) 5.0, 5-6 David Narava (Czech Rep), Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzbekistan) 4.5, 7-8 Vincent Keymer (Germany), Hans Moke Niemann (USA) 4.0, 9-10 Gukesh Dommaraju (India), David Anton Guijarro (Spain) 3.5 pts.

Results (Round 9): Nodirbek Abdusattorov (6.0) drew with Hans Moke Niemann (4.0), Aravindh Chithambaram (5.0) beat David Navara (4.5), Parham Maghsoodloo (5.0) beat Jorden van Foreest (5.0), Vincent Keymer (4.0) lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev (4.5), David Anton Guijarro (3.5) lost to Gukesh Dommaraju (3.5).

Parham Maghsoodloo (2708) – Jorden van Foreest (2705) 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 cxd4 5. O-O g6 6. Qxd4 Bg7 7. Rd1 O-O 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. Qa4 Qb6 10. Nxd5 Nxd5 11. Rxd5 Bf5 12. c3 Rad8 13. Ne1 Ne5 14. Qb3 Qa6 15. Rxd8 Rxd8 16. Bf1 Be6 17. Qc2 Bxa2 18. Bf4 Qe6 19. Qa4 Bd5 20. Qxa7 Nc4 21. Nd3 Bc6 22. f3 h6 23. Rd1 g5 24. Bc1 Ne5 25. Qe3 Qb3 26. Rd2 Nc4 27. Nc5 Nxd2 28. Nxb3 Nxb3 29. Qb6 Rd1 30. Be3 Na1 31. Kf2 Nc2 32. Bc5 Bf6 33. Qb3 Rd2 34. Bh3 Bd5 35. Qb6 Bc4 36. Bf1 Rd5 37. Qc7 e6 38. Qc8+ Kh7 39. Bb6 Ba6 40. b4 Na3 41. Qf8 Rd7 42. Bd4 Bxd4+ 43. cxd4 Rc7 44. d5 Bc4

45. Qd8 1-0

Sahidi Samir (2517) – Krishnan Sasikiran (2538) 1. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O d6 6. d4 Bd7 7. dxe5 Nxe5 8. Bxd7+ Qxd7 9. Nc3 Be7 10. Nd4 O-O 11. Bg5 Rae8 12. Re1 Bd8 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Nd5 Bd8 15. c3 g6 16. Qc2 Ng4 17. h3 c6 18. Ne3 Nf6 19. Nc4 Bc7 20. Nf3 Qe6 21. Ncd2 Re7 22. c4 Rfe8 23. b4 Nh5 24. Re3 Qf6 25. Rae1 Nf4 26. Nb3 d5 27. cxd5 cxd5 28. Nc5 d4 29. e5 Qc6 30. Re4 Bxe5 31. g3 d3 32. Qb3 Ne2+ 33. Kg2 Bc3 34. Rxe7 Rxe7 35. Rf1 Qxf3+ 36. Kxf3 Nd4+ 37. Kf4

37…Bd2+ 0-1

Complete Results

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

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