Prague Masters 2024: Praggnanandhaa crushes Keymer in opener; Vidit, Gukesh draw

India’s R. Praggnanandhaa came up with a scintillating performance to grind down German Vincent Keymer in the first round of the Prague Masters Chess tournament that got underway here on Wednesday.

With this win, Praggnanandhaa again overtook Viswanathan Anand in live rating to clinch the top spot in the country.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan defeated Thai Dai Van Nguyen of Czechia while Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran was the other player to score a full point at the expense of Mateusz Bartel of Poland.

In other games of the day, D. Gukesh had a chance to fight for more but had to settle for a draw with Richard Rapport of Romania, and Vidit Gujrathi split the point with David Navara of Czechia.

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Praggnanandhaa continued to come true to his reputation of very extremely dangerous on the attack, as he started with an Italian opening and then uncorked a thematic piece sacrifice in the middle game to rip apart black’s king side.

Keymer failed to find a proper defence, which eventually crumbled. The final nail in the coffin was a deftly planned pawn move that sealed the game in 41 moves for the Indian.

File photo: Vidit had white pieces but Navara was quite up to the mark in his defence. A side variation in the Berlin defence by the Indian only gave some optical advantage as Navara neutralised in quick time.
| Photo Credit:
Velankanni Raj B/ The Hindu

Abdusattarov, known for his skills in all departments of the game, clocked in one correct move after another with white to get the vital point in 41 moves.

Maghsoodloo was the only player in the Masters to win as black after Bartel collapsed in the middle game. The opening was a Sicilian Rossolimo wherein Bartel got just about a balanced middle-game.

A wrong pawn move on the king’s side cost the Polish GM dearly as Maghsoodloo cashed in with a timely attack. The game was over in a mere 34 moves.

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Vidit had white pieces but Navara was quite up to the mark in his defence. A side variation in the Berlin defence by the Indian only gave some optical advantage as Navara neutralised in quick time.

Gujrathi tried for as long as 89 moves before finally signing the peace.

Gukesh faced the Sicilian Classical from Richard Rapport and looked in control in what appeared to be a wild middle game. The excitement, however, was short-lived as Gukesh went for trading the queens when many felt that he should have retained.

The result was a draw after 40 moves.

In the Challengers section, R Vaishali lost her first-round game against Ukrainian Anton Korobov.