Prague Chess Festival R8: Vidit Loses Won Game, Still Leads
In an incredible turnaround, GM Vidit Gujrathi spoiled a winning position and ended up losing to GM David Navara in round eight of the Prague Chess Festival's Masters tournament. Instead of winning the tournament with a round to spare, the Indian grandmaster now leads by half a point.
GM Hannes Stefansson suffered his first loss and now shares the lead in the Challengers with GM Andrey Esipenko, GM Kacper Piorun, and GM Jorden van Foreest.
You can follow the tournament here in our live portal. The tournament runs February 12-21 with a rest day on February 17. The final round starts at 14:00 CET which is 5 a.m. Pacific time.
Vidit did keep that half-point lead, but his loss against Navara must have been devastating. The 25-year-old Indian player was better out of the opening and winning in the early endgame, but as he "forgot" to give a check in time-trouble he allowed Navara back into the game. Further mistakes in the remaining rook endgame turned the tables completely. Incredible.
IM David Pruess provided a video review of the game for Youtube subscribers.
GM Nils Grandelius is having a terrible tournament. It's understandable that he really wanted to try and win a game, but perhaps he should have repeated moves when he had the chance. GM David Anton won a good game and is now in the group of players chasing Vidit.
Prague Masters | Round 8 Games
Pairings last round: Anton-Firouzja, Duda-Vidit, Navara-Harikrishna, Ragger-Grandelius, Shankland-Vitiugov. In case of a tie for first place, there will be a playoff between the top two players which will be determined as follows: 1. mutual result(s), 2. Sonneborn-Berger, 3. number of games with Black, 4. drawing of lots.
It seems that if Duda beats Vidit, seven players still have a chance to win this tournament.
Prague Masters | Round 8 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2721 | 2788 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5.0/8 | ||||
| 2 | Vitiugov, Nikita | 2731 | 2750 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.5/8 | 18 | |||
| 3 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2726 | 2749 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 4.5/8 | 16.75 | |||
| 4 | Anton Guijarro, David | 2697 | 2749 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.5/8 | 16.5 | |||
| 5 | Navara, David | 2717 | 2706 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.0/8 | 15.75 | |||
| 6 | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2755 | 2700 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.0/8 | 15.25 | |||
| 7 | Shankland, Sam | 2683 | 2707 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.0/8 | 14.5 | |||
| 8 | Ragger, Markus | 2670 | 2674 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.5/8 | 14.5 | |||
| 9 | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2713 | 2662 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.5/8 | 14 | |||
| 10 | Grandelius, Nils | 2659 | 2581 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 2.5/8 |
Piorun single-handedly broke open the Challengers tournament. He defeated leader Stefansson and caught him in first place, joined by Esipenko and Van Foreest.
Like in Vidit-Navara, White misplayed a rook endgame which shows how difficult such endings can be:
Prague Challengers | Round 8 Games
Pairings last round: Cernousek-Nguyen, Esipenko-Krejci, Kriebel-Bartel, Piorun-Abasov, Van Foreest-Stefansson. Also here, anything is possible!
Prague Challengers | Round 8 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Esipenko, Andrey | 2654 | 2668 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5.0/8 | 19.5 | |||
| 2 | Piorun, Kacper | 2611 | 2660 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5.0/8 | 18.5 | |||
| 3 | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2667 | 2671 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5.0/8 | 17.75 | |||
| 4 | Stefansson, Hannes | 2529 | 2671 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5.0/8 | 16.25 | |||
| 5 | Bartel, Mateusz | 2639 | 2631 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.5/8 | 17.5 | |||
| 6 | Abasov, Nijat | 2670 | 2616 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4.5/8 | 16.5 | |||
| 7 | Nguyen, Thai Dai Van | 2560 | 2562 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.5/8 | 14 | |||
| 8 | Cernousek, Lukas | 2442 | 2562 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.5/8 | 12.5 | |||
| 9 | Krejci, Jan | 2559 | 2390 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 2.0/8 | 8.25 | |||
| 10 | Kriebel, Tadeas | 2524 | 2396 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 2.0/8 | 6.25 |
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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