Pragg downs Keymer, leads with Aravindh @ Prague Masters
Tata Steel Champion GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu defeated GM Vincent Keymer joining fellow Indian GM Aravindh in the lead at 3.0 points after the 4th round of the Prague International Chess Festival 2025 organised by Novy Bor Chess Club at Hotel Don Giovanni, Prague. A full point behind at 2.0 points were GMs Keymer, Shankland, Le and Giri.
Another exciting day’s play saw two games producing results viz., Wei Yi – Navara 1-0 & Keymer – Praggnanandhaa 0-1 while the games between Nguyen – Le, Gürel – Giri, Aravindh – Shankland ended in draws.
In a match up between two young Knights – Keymer & Pragg – the Indian came one up today. The French Winawer game saw white making the first new move with 10.Nf3 which took Pragg by some surprise. A few moves later it was Keymer who was looking good. With a fully open king-side and attack on the the flank white looked like pushing for the jugular. But the pawn grab on 19. Rxh7 appeared to come a bit early and let black back into the game. Once counter-play got ensured Pragg didn’t let it go and smoothly converted the middle-game edge into a winning one.
In a first step towards recovery, top seed GM Wei Yi scored his first win, while inflicting local star Czech GM David Navara his first defeat of the tournament. In a Giuoco Piano game it was GM Navara who went for an early king-side aggression and paid a price for it later. For, the light squares and diagonals were all open with no defence in sight and Wei Yi pounced on the weaknesses pocketing a full point. Except queen rest of the black pieces appeared off-side and after diverting the queen with 29. c4 the white queen, rook and bishop moved like a trapeze to fix the lone white monarch. A text-book 31 move win should pep up the spirits of GM Wei Yi to turn it around in the rounds remaining.
The tournament leaders, GMs Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh face each other in the 5th round, while in other pairings Shankland faces Wei Yi, Le takes on Keymer, Giri battles it out with Nguyen and Navara crosses swords with Gürel.
In the Challengers section the lead continued to stay with the Grandmaster duo Yakubboev Nodirbek (Uzbekistan) and Bjerre Jonas Buhl (Denmark) at 3.0 points. Following them were the quartet viz., Ma Qun (China), Salgado Lopez Ivan (Spain), Maurizzi Marc’Andria (France0 and Nemec Jachym (Czech Republic) at 2.0 points apiece.
Round five starts by Sunday, 2nd March at 9 AM ET / 3 PM CET / 7:30 PM IST.
Keymer Vincent (2731) – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (2741) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. Bd2 Ne7 6. a3 Bxc3 7. Bxc3 b6 8. h4 Nbc6 9. h5 Qc7 10. Nf3 Nf5 11. Bb5 Bd7 12. Bxc6 Bxc6 13. g4 Ne7 14. h6 gxh6 15. Rxh6 Rg8 16. g5 cxd4 17. Bxd4 Bb5 18. a4 Ba6 19. Rxh7 Rc8 20. c3 Qc4 21. Rh1 Nc6 22. Rg1 Rh8 23. b3 Qd3 24. Qxd3 Bxd3 25. Kd2 Be4 26. Rg3 Ne7 27. g6 Bxg6 28. Rgg1 Rh3 29. Rg3 Rh5 30. Rg5 Rh3 31. Rg3 Rh7 32. Rgg1 Nc6 33. Be3 Kd7 34. Rg3 Rh5 35. Rg4 Rch8 36. Rf4 Na5 37. Rb4 Rf5 38. Nd4 Rxe5 39. c4 Re4 40. Rb5 dxc4 41. Rd1 cxb3 42. Nxb3 Nxb3+ 43. Kc3+ Kc6 44. Kxb3
Praggnanandhaa finished nicely with 44…Rxa4 0-1 (45. Kxa4 Bc2+ 46.Ka3 Bxd1 47. Rg5 Rd8 48. Rg7 Rd3+ 49. Kb2 Rd7 winning).
Wei Yi (2755) – Navara David (2677) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 a5 8. Nbd2 Ba7 9. a4 Qe7 10. O-O g5 11. Bg3 h5 12. h4 g4 13. Ne1 O-O 14. Nc2 Kg7 15. Re1 Ng8 16. Nf1 f5 17. exf5 Nh6 18. Nfe3 Nxf5 19. Nxf5+ Bxf5 20. d4 Bxc2 21. Qxc2 Qf6 22. Re4 exd4 23. Rae1 dxc3 24. bxc3 Qf5 25. Bd3 Qd5 26. Re6 Rf6 27. Rxf6 Kxf6 28. Qd2 Kg7 29. c4 Qc5 30. Re6 Rh8 31. Qf4 1-0
Masters (Round 4 Results): Nguyen Thai Dai Van (1.5) drew with Le Quang Liem (2.0), Gürel Ediz (1.5) drew with Giri Anish (2.0), Wei Yi (1.5) bt Navara David (1.5), Aravindh Chithambaram (3.0) drew with Shankland Sam (2.0), Keymer Vincent (2.0) lost to Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (3.0)
Challengers (Round 4 Results): Bjerre Jonas Buhl (3.0) drew with Yakubboev Nodirbek (3.0), Nemec Jachym (2.0) lost to Stalmach Richard (1.5), Finek Vaclav (1.5) lost to Maurizzi Marc’Andria (2.0), Divya Deshmukh (1.5) drew with Ma Qun (2.0), Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis (1.5) drew with Salgado Lopez Ivan (2.0)
Picture Courtesy: Prague Chess Festival 2025 Facebook page
Official Site: https://praguechessfestival.com/en/2025
