The Grand Finale
The conclusion of the festival brought thrilling battles for medal positions. In the Masters tournament, all eyes were on the Abdusattorov – Maghsoodloo game in the 8th round. A victory would have secured Abdusattorov the first place regardless of his result in the final round. Conversely, if Maghsoodloo had won, he would have overtaken the leading Abdusattorov and could have fought for the most precious metal in the final round himself. And the game did not disappoint. It saw several major twists, sacrifices, and attacks. Later, both players received the Lubomír Kaválek award for the best game of the entire festival.
After a thrilling battle, Abdusattorov won the tournament and also moved up to the 4th place in the world rankings!
In the final round, therefore, it was a fight for the second place. In the group of players with 4.5 points were Nguyen Thai Dai Van, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Nguyen managed to cleanly outplay Vidit, who was struggling in his game. The critical positioned appeared on the board after 24…Kh7. White had several winning continuations.
However, Nguyen didn’t manage to calculate all the complications after moves like 25.Bd7! and eventually decided to head for the endgame after 25.Qa3, Qc5, which ultimately allowed Vidit to escape with a draw. Therefore, second place had to be decided by the remaining two games. David Navara managed to hold a rook endgame with black pieces against Praggnanandhaa, so the last one who could overtake Nguyen in points was Parham Maghsoodloo. His game against Gukesh looked very promising for him for a long time. Before the time control, he even managed to win a piece. However, in a critical position, he couldn’t find a beautiful combination and Gukesh managed to save the game.
Can you spot the spectacular winning combination Maghsoodloo has here vs. Gukesh? https://t.co/ukXok6CtRP pic.twitter.com/TIZnDiCN1U
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 7, 2024
Nguyen Thai Dai Van thus took a sensational second place thanks to better tiebreaks, which he secured with his win over Maghsoodloo in round 6. Even though he was the last seed in the tournament and started with two losses, he managed to improve on his third place from 2022.
The third and fourth positions were decided by the game from the second round, in which Maghsoodloo emerged victorious over Praggnanandhaa. David Navara also made his mark in the tournament. He only lost to the winner and managed to defeat Gukesh, securing him the 5th place.
| RK. | Name | ELO | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | PTS | DE | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | GM Abdusattorov Nodirbek | 2744 | UZB | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 6,5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 2. | GM Nguyen Thai Dai Van | 2630 | CZE | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5 | 1,5 | 3 | |
| 3. | GM Maghsoodloo Parham | 2715 | IRI | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | |
| 4. | GM Praggnanandhaa R | 2747 | IND | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0,5 | 3 | |
| 5. | GM Navara David | 2667 | CZE | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4,5 | 1,5 | 1 | |
| 6. | GM Rapport Richard | 2717 | ROU | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4,5 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7. | GM Gukesh D | 2743 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 4,5 | 0,5 | 2 | |
| 8. | GM Bartel Mateusz | 2660 | POL | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 3,5 | 0,5 | 1 | |
| 9. | GM Keymer Vincent | 2738 | GER | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 3,5 | 0,5 | 1 | |
| 10. | GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2747 | IND | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
The two leading players went into the last round of the Challengers tournament with 5.5 points. Jaime Santos Latasa was the favourite for first place, playing black pieces against Vaishali Rameshbabu. A tough task awaited the young Ediz Gurel, who had to fight with black pieces against the top seed Anton Korobov.
Santos managed to create excellent chances, however Vaishali defended brilliantly and ultimately held the game Aware that a victory would secure him the first place, Gurel strategically executed his game. He navigated the complexities of the middlegame excellently and gained a clean pawn. Even the tough resistance of the Ukrainian grandmaster in the endgame couldn’t stop him, and Ediz Gurel won the Challengers tournament with a fantastic performance. The cherry on top for him was achieving the final grandmaster norm and the prize for the best game of the last round.
The rise of the youngsters! 20-year-old Abdusattorov won the Prague Masters with a 1.5-point margin and is the new number 4 in the live ratings! Meanwhile the 15-year-old Gurel achieved his final GM norm by winning the Prague Challengers. pic.twitter.com/FABla2eCle
— lichess.org (@lichess) March 7, 2024
Santos Latasa ended up in second place, with the bronze going to Erwin L’ami. Among the Czech players, Richard Stalmach was the most successful. With a heroic performance in the last round against Rodshtein, he saved a hopeless rook endgame and improved his score to 4/9. The last place was shared by Štěpán Hrbek and Václav Finěk with 2.5 points each. However, both only lost a few Elo points in the tournament and played many interesting and combative games, which will surely have them aiming for higher ranks next time.
| RK. | Name | ELO | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | PTS | DE | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | IM Gurel Ediz | 2560 | TUR | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6,5 | 0 | 25,75 | |
| 2. | GM Santos Latasa Jaime | 2612 | ESP | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 6 | 0 | 25,50 | |
| 3. | GM L'ami Erwin | 2636 | NED | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 5,5 | 0,5 | 22,00 | |
| 4. | GM Mishra Abhimanyu | 2627 | USA | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5,5 | 0,5 | 21,25 | |
| 5. | GM Korobov Anton | 2666 | UKR | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 5 | 0 | 19,75 | |
| 6. | GM Rodshtein Maxim | 2590 | ISR | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 4,5 | 0 | 20,00 | |
| 7. | IM Stalmach Richard | 2434 | CZE | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 4 | 0 | 17,50 | |
| 8. | IM Vaishali Rameshbabu | 2481 | IND | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3 | 0 | 10,75 | |
| 9. | IM Hrbek Stepan | 2426 | CZE | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 2,5 | 0,5 | 11,25 | |
| 10. | IM Finek Vaclav | 2429 | CZE | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2,5 | 0,5 | 9,75 |
The Futures tournament of the youngest talents was dominated by India’s Aansh Nandan Nerurkar. He only allowed his opponents two draws. Pawel Brzezina from Poland also went undefeated through the tournament, finishing second. The third place was taken by Slovakia’s Tomáš Andre.
| RK. | Name | ELO | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | PTS | DE | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Aansh Nandan Nerurkar | 1786 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 31,25 | |
| 2. | Brzezina Pawel | 1914 | POL | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 6,5 | 0 | 27,00 | |
| 3. | Andre Tomas | 1915 | SVK | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 19,25 | |
| 4. | Jakubse Tamae Severina | 1738 | CZE | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 5 | 0 | 20,50 | |
| 5. | Markina Sofiia | 1724 | CZE | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 15,00 | |
| 6. | Siskou Evangelia | 1745 | GRE | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 4 | 0 | 13,50 | |
| 7. | Stara Zuzana | 1678 | CZE | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3,5 | 0,5 | 14,25 | |
| 8. | Guntaka Aayansh R | 1767 | USA | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3,5 | 0,5 | 13,00 | |
| 9. | Peglau Paul David | 1822 | GER | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 13,50 | |
| 10. | Mrozowski Nikodem | 1636 | POL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 2,5 | 0 | 9,75 |
In the Open tournament, Greek GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis dominated with eight points out of a possible nine, qualifying him for the next edition of the Challengers tournament. Czech Grandmaster Petr Neuman also achieved an excellent result. His seven points resulted in a performance of 2624, earning him fourth place in the tournament and a qualification to the closed championship of the Czech Republic.
Author: Richard Mládek
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