The Prague Masters has become a dream tournament for GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. In a field with three candidates, the 19-year-old Uzbek GM secured victory with a round to spare today while moving to world number four in the live ratings, surpassing World Champion Ding Liren.
Abdusattorov today defeated GM Parham Maghsoodloo in another tremendous fighting game not unlike their previous clash in Wijk aan Zee this year. The other winner in the round was GM Gukesh Dommaraju, who refuted dubious early middlegame play by GM Vincent Keymer.
GM Vidit Gujrathi vs. GM Richard Rapport, GM Mateusz Bartel vs. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and GM David Navara vs. GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen all ended in draws.
The final round starts four hours earlier than usual, on Thursday at 5 a.m. ET / 11:00 CET / 3:30 p.m. IST.
With 6/8, Abdusattorov is one and a half points ahead of the trio of Nguyen, Maghsoodloo, and Praggnanandhaa going into the final round. With a virtual rating of 2766, he is also four Elo points ahead of the world champion. Not a bad day for a player whom we’ll sadly be missing in the upcoming Candidates Tournament.
Prague Masters | Round 8 Results
Abdusattorov-Maghsoodloo was another captivating battle between two uncompromising players, and a true rollercoaster of a game, especially in the final hour of play. It also showed that the tournament, full of fighting chess, has been a tiring affair for the players.
It was a Sicilian Najdorf with opposite-side castling, but nonetheless much more of a positional middlegame than a tactical one. Only shortly before the time control did things become very concrete, when Abdusattorov sacrificed his queen for a bishop, rook, and advanced passed pawn.
With an unnecessary pawn sacrifice, he allowed his opponent counterplay and in fact Maghsoodloo was even winning for one move. After that it was a draw for a while, but the Iranian GM didn’t find the correct checks with his queen and lost after all. A street fight of a game, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao:
Nodirbek Abdusattorov wrapped up his tournament victory in Prague with a (temporary) queen sac on g8! pic.twitter.com/3SCvHdei1R
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 6, 2024
Gukesh started well in Prague, but suffered two losses in a row, twice as White, in rounds five and six. He recovered well from that with a miraculous escape the other day against Praggnanandhaa, followed by a very good win today vs. Keymer.
The 19-year-old player from Mainz must have miscalculated something because, hardly out of the opening, he found himself in deep trouble. Gukesh had no mercy and played blow after blow, powerfully executing his attack:
After losing three games in a row, Vidit understandably didn’t try too hard today, kept the position closed in a King’s Indian vs. Rapport, and drew in 30 moves. The all-Czech clash Navara-Nguyen was quiet as well, but the third draw was quite interesting.
Via a Rossolimo move-order, Bartel went for the old and theoretically innocuous 4.Qxd4 sideline in the Sicilian, which likely caught Praggnanandhaa by surprise because he failed to completely equalize out of the opening. Bartel’s decision to sacrifice an exchange was good news for his opponent as it was never more than equal after that:
The pairings for the final round are Praggnanandhaa-Navara, Keymer-Bartel, Maghsoodloo-Gukesh, Rapport-Abdusattorov, and Nguyen-Vidit. It will mostly be about who manages to clinch second place.
Prague Masters | Round 8 Standings
This guy will be 2900
— Rauf Mamedov (@muisback88) March 6, 2024
Thanks to beating GM Anton Korobov, GM Jaime Santos caught IM Ediz Gurel in first place in the Prague Challengers. The big news, however, was that thanks to his draw with GM Erwin l’Ami, Gurel had scored his third and final GM norm.
Prague Challengers | Round 8 Results
In the live broadcast, the 15-year-old Turkish player revealed that he is working with GM Dragan Solak but that he only studies chess for two hours a day due to a tough school schedule (almost daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.), so it is all the more impressive that he got his rating to 2560 at that age!
Asked how he feels about becoming a GM, he replied: “Good, but I’d feel better if I had won this game.” That’s the spirit.
Prague Challengers | Round 8 Standings
The 2024 Prague Chess Festival takes place February 27-March 7 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format is a single round-robin. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting on move one.
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