The Prague International Chess Festival is an annual tournament which has been held in the Czech capital since 2019. This year’s edition will take place in the Don Giovanni Hotel from February 25 to March 6, and the organizers recently announced a star-studded field in both the Masters and Challengers sections.
The highest-rated players in the Masters section are GM Vincent Keymer, followed by the World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju. They’re joined by the current leader of the Tata Steel Chess Masters, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The other participants are GMs Parham Maghsoodloo, Jorden van Foreest, Aravindh Chithambaram, Nodirbek Yakubboev, David Anton Guijarro, and local heroes Thai Dai Van Nguyen and David Navara.
2026 Prague Masters
| Rank | Title | Name | FED | Rating (Jan 2026) | World no. |
| 1 | GM | Vincent Keymer | 2776 | 4 | |
| 2 | GM | Gukesh Dommaraju | 2754 | 9 | |
| 3 | GM | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2751 | 12 | |
| 4 | GM | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2708 | 28 | |
| 5 | GM | Jorden van Foreest | 2703 | 31 | |
| 6 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2700 | 32 | |
| 7 | GM | Nodirbek Yakubboev | 2691 | 36 | |
| 8 | GM | David Anton Guijarro | 2662 | 53 | |
| 9 | GM | Thai Dai Van Nguyen | 2656 | 59 | |
| 10 | GM | David Navara | 2635 | 88 |
There will also be a Challengers section featuring GMs Benjamin Gledura, Jonas Buhl Bjerre, Daniil Yuffa, Zhu Jiner, Surya Ganguly, Thomas Beerdsen, and Divya Deshmukh, and Czech IMs Vaclav Finek, Stepan Hrbek, and Jachym Nemec.
2026 Prague Challengers
| Rank | Title | Name | FED | Rating (Jan 2026) |
| 1 | GM | Benjamin Gledura | 2654 | |
| 2 | GM | Jonas Buhl Bjerre | 2628 | |
| 3 | GM | Daniil Yuffa | 2604 | |
| 4 | GM | Zhu Jiner | 2579 | |
| 5 | GM | Surya Shekhar Ganguly | 2568 | |
| 6 | IM | Vaclav Finek | 2533 | |
| 7 | GM | Thomas Beerdsen | 2527 | |
| 8 | GM | Divya Deshmukh | 2497 | |
| 9 | IM | Stepan Hrbek | 2454 | |
| 10 | IM | Jachym Nemec | 2445 |
The Prague Chess Festival goes from strength to strength and the upcoming Masters field has an average rating of 2704, making it one of the year’s elite events. Aravindh won last year’s tournament with an impressive 6/9 score, ahead of 2026 Candidates GMs Anish Giri, Wei Yi and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu—it’s notable all of the Candidates will be focused on preparation rather than playing in Prague this year.
This is Aravindh’s critical victory over Praggnanandhaa, with annotations by GM Rafael Leitao.
Yakubboev, who nearly qualified for the Candidates via the FIDE World Cup last year, will be playing the Masters section for the first time after defeating Bjerre in a playoff to win the Challengers section last year. This was the critical moment, annotated by NM Anthony Levin.
As in previous years there’s also a Futures tournament, for which the field is yet to be announced.
Here are the winners of previous editions of the festival.
Prague Chess Festival Winners
| Year | Masters | Challengers | ||
| 2019 | Nikita Vitiugov | David Anton Guijarro | ||
| 2020 | Alireza Firouzja | Jorden van Foreest | ||
| 2021 | Sam Shankland | not held | ||
| 2022 | Pentala Harikrishna | Vincent Keymer | ||
| 2023 | Ray Robson | Mateusz Bartel | ||
| 2024 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Ediz Gurel | ||
| 2025 | Aravindh Chithambaram | Nodirbek Yakubboev |
Who do you think will follow in their footsteps in 2026?
