Prague Chess Festival R5: Vidit Beats Firouzja, Increases Lead
Heading into the rest day of the Prague Chess Festival, GM Vidit Gujrathi leads the Masters tournament by a full point. On Sunday, the Indian grandmaster defeated GM Alireza Firouzja convincingly.
GM Hannes Stefansson continues to lead the Challengers section. The Icelandic GM is half a point ahead of GM Andrey Esipenko and GM Mateusz Bartel.
You can follow the tournament here in our live portal. The tournament runs February 12-21 with a rest day on February 17. The rounds start at 15:00 CET which is 6 a.m. Pacific time. The final round starts an hour earlier.
On Saturday, nothing changed in the Masters as all five games ended in draws. The game of the day was the one between Firouzja and GM Nikita Vitiugov, in a Ruy Lopez that exploded when Firouzja went for a very interesting piece sacrifice on move 28.
He was briefly winning, but eventually, Vitiugov escaped in the complications:
Firouzja once again grabbed all the attention during the fifth round on Sunday, but this time not in a good way. He underestimated White's hidden potential in an Exchange Slav as he grabbed a dangerous pawn on b2, giving Vidit the chance to score a quick victory and increase his lead to a full point.
GM David Navara had a bad start in this tournament, but he finally got his first win in round five in a sharp game with GM Nils Grandelius. He found a brilliant path to victory just after the time control:
I was in the mood to play something sharp! #chess #picf2020 pic.twitter.com/3CeTAU2Byp
— Prague Chess Festival (@PragueChess) February 16, 2020
Prague Masters | Round 4-5 Games
Prague Masters | Round 5 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2721 | 2927 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4.0/5 | |||||||
| 2 | Vitiugov, Nikita | 2731 | 2763 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/5 | 6.75 | ||||||
| 3 | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2755 | 2766 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/5 | 6.25 | ||||||
| 4 | Anton Guijarro, David | 2697 | 2721 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/5 | 6.5 | ||||||
| 5 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2726 | 2699 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/5 | 5.5 | ||||||
| 6 | Grandelius, Nils | 2659 | 2652 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 2.0/5 | 5.75 | ||||||
| 7 | Ragger, Markus | 2670 | 2660 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.0/5 | 5.25 | ||||||
| 8 | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2713 | 2641 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 2.0/5 | 5 | ||||||
| 9 | Shankland, Sam | 2683 | 2651 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.0/5 | 4.75 | ||||||
| 10 | Navara, David | 2717 | 2623 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 2.0/5 | 4 |
Stefansson still leads the Challengers. There are now two players in second place as Esipenko got caught by Bartel, who started with three draws but has since won two games in a row. In round five, he outplayed Azerbaijani GM Nijat Abasov from start to finish:
Prague Challengers | Round 4-5 Games
Prague Challengers | Round 5 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Stefansson, Hannes | 2529 | 2788 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.0/5 | |||||||
| 2 | Esipenko, Andrey | 2654 | 2741 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.5/5 | 8 | ||||||
| 3 | Bartel, Mateusz | 2639 | 2724 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3.5/5 | 8 | ||||||
| 4 | Nguyen, Thai Dai Van | 2560 | 2601 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.5/5 | 7 | ||||||
| 5 | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2667 | 2581 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.5/5 | 5.5 | ||||||
| 6 | Piorun, Kacper | 2611 | 2570 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/5 | 4 | ||||||
| 7 | Abasov, Nijat | 2670 | 2590 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/5 | 3.75 | ||||||
| 8 | Cernousek, Lukas | 2442 | 2530 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.0/5 | |||||||
| 9 | Krejci, Jan | 2559 | 2421 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/5 | |||||||
| 10 | Kriebel, Tadeas | 2524 | 2245 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0.5/5 |
The Prague Chess Festival has a prize fund of 44,000 euros ($48,000) and runs February 12-21 in Hotel Don Giovanni in Prague. Monday, February 17 is a rest day.
Previous reports:
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