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Prague Chess Festival 2025: Praggnanandhaa makes sedate start, Keymer wins and Divya Deshmukh loses
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  • Prague Chess Festival 2025: Praggnanandhaa makes sedate start, Keymer wins and Divya Deshmukh loses

Prague Chess Festival 2025: Praggnanandhaa makes sedate start, Keymer wins and Divya Deshmukh loses

FP Sports Desk • February 27, 2025, 09:15:33 IST
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R Praggnanandhaa failed to find a win against David Navara while playing with white pieces in the opening round of Prague Chess Masters 2025 while India’s Aravindh Chithambaram secured a thrilling draw against Thai Dai Van Nguyen.

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Prague Chess Festival 2025: Praggnanandhaa makes sedate start, Keymer wins and Divya Deshmukh loses
R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw against David Navara in Round 1 of Prague Chess Masters 2025. Image: R Praggnanandhaa on X

Indian chess Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa got off to a sedate start in the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival 2025 while Aravindh Chithambaram pulled off a thrilling draw against Czech chess star Thai Dai Van Nguyen. Germany’s Vincent Keymer, who recently won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Stage 1, is currently in a joint lead along with American Sam Shankland after the opening round on Wednesday.

The seventh edition of the Prague Chess Festival, which is being played at the Don Giovanni Hotel in the Czech Republic capital city, also saw India’s Divya Deshmukh lose her first round match in the Challengers section to Spanish GM Ivan Salgado Lopez.

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Praggnanandhaa makes sedate start in Prague

Praggnanandhaa, who won the Tata Steel Chess 2025 in the Netherlands, is the second seed in the tournament. He played with white pieces against local GM David Navara in the opening round and held clear advantages at two key moments in the game — first, when he could have reached a favourable isolated queen’s pawn position with 16.Kf2 or opted for the more tactical 16.Nf5!. Though Praggnanandhaa later managed to win a pawn he couldn’t capitalise and settled for a draw.

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Praggnanandhaa will next take on Turkish GM Ediz Gürel in Round 2.

Chithambaram vs Nguyen

While Nguyen had an advantage from early on, he wasn’t able to convert it into a win. But he was given a clear route when Chithambaram blundered with 66.Rc1? presumably trying to put time pressure on his opponent. This allowed black to play 66…Rxc3! and return to winning position.

Nguyen, however, surrendered the advantage after playing 70…Qxe2? when 70…Bd6 would have been the best move but under time pressure he wasn’t able to find it and eventually the game ended in a draw via perpetual check.

More from Chess
Prague Chess 2025: Aravindh Chithambaram stuns Vincent Keymer; Divya Deshmukh secures win in Challengers Prague Chess 2025: Aravindh Chithambaram stuns Vincent Keymer; Divya Deshmukh secures win in Challengers Prague Masters: Praggnanandhaa vs Chithambaram ends in draw as Indians continue to lead the standings Prague Masters: Praggnanandhaa vs Chithambaram ends in draw as Indians continue to lead the standings

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In other matches, Keymer defeated China’s Wei Yi with white pieces and Shankland downed Gürel to earn one point each and jointly lead the standings. Keymer next faces India’s Chithambaram.

Dutch GM Anish Giri also played out a draw against Vietnamese GM Lê Quang Liêm.

Prague Chess: Masters standings after Round 1

RankingNamePoints
1KEYMER Vincent1
2SHANKLAND Sam1
3GIRI Anish0,5
4NAVARA David0,5
5NGUYEN Thai Dai Van0,5
6ARAVINDH Chithambaram Vr.0,5
7PRAGGNANANDHAA R0,5
8LE Quang Liem0,5
9GUREL Ediz0
10WEI Yi0

Prague Chess: Challengers standings after Round 1

RankingNamePoints
1BJERRE Jonas Buhl1
2SALGADO LOPEZ Ivan1
3MA Qun0,5
4MAURIZZI Marc`andria0,5
5FINEK Vaclav0,5
6NEMEC Jachym0,5
7STALMACH Richard0,5
8YAKUBBOEV Nodirbek0,5
9DIVYA Deshmukh0
10KOURKOULOS-ARDITIS Stamatis0
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