 "Prague Chess Festival 2025: Praggnanandhaa makes sedate start, Keymer wins and Divya Deshmukh loses")
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.
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.
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.
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
| Ranking | Name | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | KEYMER Vincent | 1 |
| 2 | SHANKLAND Sam | 1 |
| 3 | GIRI Anish | 0,5 |
| 4 | NAVARA David | 0,5 |
| 5 | NGUYEN Thai Dai Van | 0,5 |
| 6 | ARAVINDH Chithambaram Vr. | 0,5 |
| 7 | PRAGGNANANDHAA R | 0,5 |
| 8 | LE Quang Liem | 0,5 |
| 9 | GUREL Ediz | 0 |
| 10 | WEI Yi | 0 |
Prague Chess: Challengers standings after Round 1
| Ranking | Name | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BJERRE Jonas Buhl | 1 |
| 2 | SALGADO LOPEZ Ivan | 1 |
| 3 | MA Qun | 0,5 |
| 4 | MAURIZZI Marc`andria | 0,5 |
| 5 | FINEK Vaclav | 0,5 |
| 6 | NEMEC Jachym | 0,5 |
| 7 | STALMACH Richard | 0,5 |
| 8 | YAKUBBOEV Nodirbek | 0,5 |
| 9 | DIVYA Deshmukh | 0 |
| 10 | KOURKOULOS-ARDITIS Stamatis | 0 |
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