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Abdusattorov Maintains World #4 Position As Prague Masters Ends With All Draws
Abdusattorov with the winner's trophy. Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.

Abdusattorov Maintains World #4 Position As Prague Masters Ends With All Draws

PeterDoggers
| 17 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov kept his newly accomplished world number-four status by finishing the 2024 Prague Masters with a quick draw against GM Richard Rapport. Thursday's final round saw draws on all boards, so Abdusattorov won the tournament with a 1.5-point margin.

GM-elect Ediz Gurel put a cherry on his chess cake with a final-round win against the strong Ukrainian grandmaster GM Anton Korobov. Because GM Jaime Santos drew his game with GM-elect Vaishali Rameshbabu, 15-year-old Gurel won the Challengers alone and qualified for next year's Masters.

Prague Masters | Round 9 Results

Prague Masters | Round 9 Results

"I'm a bit tired but, really, very happy that I managed to win," Abdusattorov said yesterday after he clinched the tournament with a round to spare. "I rank this success high in my career. It was one of my best tournaments," he added. Today, the winner wasn't really put to the test anymore.

Rapport wasn't much in a fighting mood at 11 a.m. in the morning, and for Abdusattorov, there was no reason to play for a win either. The game was a French Exchange, which almost says enough. Also, in the remainder, both sides seemed eager to make trades when possible:

Abdusattorov with Sagar Shag (left) and Amruta Mokal. Image: Prague Chess Festival.
Abdusattorov with Sagar Shah (left) and Amruta Mokal. Image: Prague Chess Festival.

The other four games were pretty exciting, so this final round was more fighting than expected. This generation of chess players really likes to battle it out on the board, don't they?

Our Game of the Day was also the longest, and it included a lovely tactic missed by GM Parham Maghsoodloo that deserves a puzzle here. White to play and win:

The position came just after Gukesh had sacrificed a knight for two pawns, a desperate measure to look for a perpetual after Maghsoodloo had outplayed him. As it turned out, it was an excellent practical choice that did save Black the half point. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes:

GM Rafael Leitao GotD

Maghsoodloo Gukesh Prague 2024
A missed tactic and Maghsoodloo let Gukesh escape. Image: Prague Chess Festival.

GM Vincent Keymer cannot complain about his draw with GM Mateusz Bartel, who was clearly better out of the opening (which, by the way, saw a novelty in the Queen's Gambit as early as move six). Black's control of the h-file was crucial, and could have yielded him a close-to-winning advantage if the Polish GM had been able to trade queens.

Keymer Bartel Prague 2024
Keymer had some problems vs. Bartel. Image: Prague Chess Festival.

GM Vidit Gujrathi's bad tournament could have ended even worse. The Indian GM was in big trouble against GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen, who missed several chances to turn a good tournament into an even better one:

Nguyen Vidit Prague 2024
Vidit has a lot to reflect on toward the Candidates. Image: Prague Chess Festival.

GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu won a pawn against GM David Navara but Black had good compensation in the double rook endgame. From the first time I saw him in Wijk aan Zee in 2007, this author remembers that Navara has always liked rook endgames and studied them a lot. It showed once again in this game, where he defended perfectly:

Praggnanandhaa Navara Prague 2024
Praggnanandhaa was better but never winning vs. Navara. Image: Prague Chess Festival.

This concludes a memorable Prague Masters tournament that saw lots of great chess. "I enjoyed every game," Abdusattorov said on the last day. "It was a very competitive tournament." Indeed!

As far as over-the-board chess is concerned, the next big events are the American Cup (starting March 12), the Grenke Chess Classic (March 26), and then the Candidates Tournament (April 4).

Abdusattorov said today about missing the Candidates: "I feel this cycle is not my cycle. I don’t regret to not play in the Candidates this year. I feel like I am not quite there yet. I’ll have more time till the next cycle and I’ll gain more experience. I hope I’ll be ready for the next tournament."

I feel this cycle is not my cycle.
–Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Prague Masters | Final Standings

Prague Masters 2024 | Final Standings

Prague Challengers | Round 9 Results

Prague Challengers 2024 | Round 9 Results

Gurel's win over Korobov was the only decisive game in the Challengers group. 6.5/9 was a fantastic score for the Turkish teenager, who said that his next goal is to reach 2700. Well, with a performance rating of 2710, he has shown that this is not out of the question.

Santos, Gurel, l'Ami Prague Challengers 2024. Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.
Winner Gurel with Santos (left) and l'Ami (right). Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.

Prague Challengers | Final Standings

Prague Challengers 2024 | Final Standings


The 2024 Prague Chess Festival took place February 27-March 7 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format was a single round-robin. The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting on move one.

How to watch?
You can watch the Prague Chess Festival on YouTube. The games can also be followed from our Events Page.

The live broadcast hosted by IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.


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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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