Parham Maghsoodloo became the first sole leader at the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival after beating Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu with the white pieces. Maghsoodloo thus ended Pragg’s undefeated streak of 47 games. In the one other decisive game of the round, Dommaraju Gukesh got the better of Thai Dai Van Nguyen. Meanwhile, Ediz Gurel scored a win to join Anton Korobov in the lead of the Challengers section. | Photo: Petr Vrabec
The sixth edition of the Prague Chess Festival kicked off at the Don Giovanni Hotel in the Czech capital. In the Masters, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Parham Maghsoodloo started with wins to become the tournament’s early co-leaders. Pragg’s victory, over Vincent Keymer, was remarkable, as the Indian star sacrificed a piece early on and managed to convert his attack into a full point while facing a tough defensive effort by his opponent. | Photo: Petr Vrabec
Monday 26 February 2024 is the official opening of the Prague Chess Festival 2024 and the first round will be played on Tuesday 27 February. Both the Masters and the Challengers tournaments have an interesting and strong field and with Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Vincent Keymer the four best junior players in the world will meet in Prague. Guest of honour at the opening ceremony will be Vishy Anand, who will also give a lecture and sign autographs.
It is 1 February and FIDE has published their new World Ranking List. There have been some changes in the rankings, mainly due to the results of the tournaments in Wijk aan Zee, but Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura continue to lead the world rankings despite not having played a FIDE rated game in January. Ju Wenjun has moved back into second place behind Hou Yifan in the women's rankings.