Prague Chess Festival R7: Firouzja Wins Again, Shankland Scores 1st
With a second win in round seven GM Alireza Firouzja moved to shared second place in the Prague Chess Festival's Masters, where GM Vidit Gujrathi still leads by a full point. GM Sam Shankland scored his first win.
GM Hannes Stefansson tops the standings in the Challengers, where Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest won two games in a row after drawing five.
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.
After the rest day, the Masters saw five draws in the sixth round. A day later, Firouzja moved up the standings with a black win against the top seed, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The irregular opening setup from the Polish GM didn't work out well, as was emphasized by the sad move 27.Nb1.
Firouzja's 34th move was excellent, and killed the last hopes for his opponent to save this game:
IM Danny Rensch provided a video review of the game for Youtube subscribers.
Shankland is back to 50 percent thanks to a good win against Grandelius. The American and the Swede were playing quite a nice Gruenfeld where Grandelius must have underestimated his chances when he decided to give up his queen. White's domination isn't that strong if he had gone for a pawn push to chase away White's knight:
Prague Masters | Round 6-7 Games
Prague Masters | Round 7 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2721 | 2856 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5.0/7 | |||||
| 2 | Vitiugov, Nikita | 2731 | 2750 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.0/7 | 13.75 | ||||
| 3 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2726 | 2759 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.0/7 | 12.75 | ||||
| 4 | Anton Guijarro, David | 2697 | 2712 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.5/7 | 12 | ||||
| 5 | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2755 | 2695 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 3.5/7 | 10.75 | ||||
| 6 | Shankland, Sam | 2683 | 2704 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.5/7 | 10.5 | ||||
| 7 | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2713 | 2661 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/7 | 11 | ||||
| 8 | Ragger, Markus | 2670 | 2669 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/7 | 10.75 | ||||
| 9 | Navara, David | 2717 | 2654 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/7 | 9.75 | ||||
| 10 | Grandelius, Nils | 2659 | 2619 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 2.5/7 |
The biggest development in the Challengers is Van Foreest's sudden jump in the standings, thanks to two straight wins. In round six he outplayed a local talent in an endgame:
Prague Challengers | Round 6-7 Games
Prague Challengers | Round 7 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Stefansson, Hannes | 2529 | 2737 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5.0/7 | |||||
| 2 | Esipenko, Andrey | 2654 | 2685 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.5/7 | 14.75 | ||||
| 3 | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2667 | 2676 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 4.5/7 | 13.25 | ||||
| 4 | Bartel, Mateusz | 2639 | 2625 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.0/7 | 13.75 | ||||
| 5 | Abasov, Nijat | 2670 | 2641 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.0/7 | 12.75 | ||||
| 6 | Piorun, Kacper | 2611 | 2627 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.0/7 | 11.25 | ||||
| 7 | Nguyen, Thai Dai Van | 2560 | 2550 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/7 | 10 | ||||
| 8 | Cernousek, Lukas | 2442 | 2547 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/7 | 8.25 | ||||
| 9 | Krejci, Jan | 2559 | 2430 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.0/7 | |||||
| 10 | Kriebel, Tadeas | 2524 | 2280 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1.0/7 |
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.
Previous reports:
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.”
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