Prague Chess Festival: Gukesh held by Navara; Aravindh loses to Keymer

World champion D. Gukesh’s hunt for his first victory continued as he was held to a draw by David Navara of the Czech Republic in the fourth round of the Prague International Chess Festival in Prague.

On a day when Jorden van Foreest of Holland nosed ahead of the field with his third victory in four games, defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram went down fighting against Vincent Keymer of Germany.

Van Foreest defeated Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan, while the other two games in the 10-player round-robin tournament ended in draws.

American Hans Moke Niemann drew with Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, and David Anton Guijarro got the same result against Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.

With five rounds still to come and the event knocking on the doors of crossing the halfway barrier, van Foreest, on three points, is now followed by Abdusattorov and Navara, who in turn are a half point ahead of Yakubboev, Keymer and Guijarro.

The remaining four participants—Aravindh, Gukesh, Niemann and Maghsoodloo—are all tied in seventh place on 1.5 points apiece.

Navara may be past his prime but, having played chess at a high level in the past, has helped him a great deal here. The Czech number one had to defend a difficult position against Gukesh out of a Ruy Lopez Berlin, but he denied the world champion any decisive advantage.

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The result was a level rook and pawns endgame wherein Gukesh had to split the point when bare kings remained on board after 72 moves.

Aravindh’s choice of sticking to the Philidor defence came as a surprise to Keymer, who seized the initiative early with a king-side attack. The Indian lost a pawn in the tactical melee and then lost a Bishop without much counterplay in this nearly one-sided encounter.

Van Foreest has been in great form recently and followed up his victory over Gukesh by scalping for Yakubboev. The Dutchman was tenacious in a difficult middle game and hung in with his black pieces as white tried to penetrate with his heavy pieces, and in the end was rewarded as Yakubboev blew his position away.

Meanwhile, in the challengers section being organised simultaneously, world women’s cup winner Divya Deshmukh drew with sole leader Vanclav Finek of the Czech Republic, while the other Indian, Surya Shekhar Ganguly signed a peace with Stepn Herbek of the host country.

Divya is on 1.5 points in the event, and Ganguly has one point from his four outings in the tournament, which is being led by Finek on three points.

Published on Mar 01, 2026