GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat Defending Champion GM Aravindh Chithambaram in round one of the 2026 Prague Chess Festival Masters to oust GM Vincent Keymer as world number-four. Keymer fell to GM Jorden van Foreest for a second event in a row, while GM David Navara overcame GM Parham Maghsoodloo, and GM Nodirbek Yakubboev defeated GM David Anton. GM Hans Niemann played a fine knight sacrifice against World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju but was thwarted by tenacious defense.
The second round begins on Thursday, February 26, starting at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 7:30 p.m. IST.
The Prague Chess Festival, taking place in the Don Giovanni Hotel, has already become a tradition that’s now in its seventh edition. Each year since 2019 we’ve seen some of the world’s best players compete and, like the Wijk aan Zee chess festival, we have not only a Masters but also a Challengers, a “Futures,” and a strong Open. The lineup is constantly changing, with only three players, Aravindh, Keymer, and Navara returning from 2025.
Keymer is top seed, just as he was in Wijk aan Zee, but will face stiff competition especially from Abdusattorov, who won this year’s Tata Steel Masters and also won back in Prague when he last played in 2024.
The most noteworthy player also competed that year, finishing fifth, but now returns as the world champion. The organizers explain this will be the first time a world champion has played classical chess in the Czech (or Slovak) Republic since the fourth World Champion Alexander Alekhine starred 95 years ago in the 1931 Chess Olympiad in Prague.
In a pre-tournament interview, Gukesh commented, “My main goal has always been to become the best player in the world and there’s still a long way to go for that,” while also saying of his “not really young anymore” generation: “All these players are much more ambitious and fighting than maybe players from other generations and it’s always nice to play against players who value fighting spirit.”
All these players are much more ambitious and fighting than maybe players from other generations.
—Gukesh Dommaraju
We soon got to witness that fighting spirit in action.
Masters
One of the reasons given for all the decisive chess in Wijk aan Zee this year was the new time control without an increment before move 40, but in Prague, with standard increments from move one, we got a bloodbath.
Round 1 Results: Masters
Only the dramatic Gukesh vs. Niemann clash was drawn, as four players won with the white pieces.
That means the field is already split, with Niemann and Gukesh in the middle and the remainder either top or bottom.
Standings After Round 1: Masters
Let’s start with the day’s most anticipated game, which didn’t let us down.
Gukesh ½-½ Niemann
Niemann was a late replacement for GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen in Prague, and his chance to play the world champion was perfectly timed. It was just announced that the Netflix documentary about Niemann’s clash with GM Magnus Carlsen will be released on April 7, with Niemann taking the opportunity to showcase his ambition.
When the world piled on smear campaigns, coordinated attacks, strategic silence: no one stood with me. Not a single institutional ally.
False narratives spread across major platforms tested my reputation and my career at the highest level.
Others had state machines, endless…
— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) February 24, 2026
What better way could he follow that up than by beating Gukesh in the first round in Prague? It could easily have happened, after 13.f4?! walked into the knight sacrifice 13…Nxd3!!.
The follow-up of the bishop coming to a6 and pins down the d-file was easy to miss and Gukesh was on the ropes, but his calm calculation in tough positions is a large part of what made him world champion.
The 19-year-old Indian dug very deep, accepted a miserable-looking position, but gave nothing to his opponent and eventually navigated his way to a draw. It had been an excellently played game by both players.
All the other games were decisive, with big moves among the heavy-hitters.
Van Foreest 1-0 Keymer
Keymer’s first experience of being top seed in a super-tournament came a month ago in Wijk aan Zee, and he won’t forget it in a hurry. He lost four games, but ultimately won six to maintain his sky-high rating as he went into the Prague Masters.
The German number-one no doubt hoped for less drama, but instead he began with exactly the same result against Van Foreest. In Wijk the Dutch star had won in 26 moves, and while this game lasted longer, it was no less bloody.
Van Foreest admitted in a post-game interview that mistakes had been made, but his faith that his huge time advantage and safer king would pay off proved justified.
📷 On day one of the Masters category we have four winners already. The biggest upset was made by Jorden van Foreest, who took down world number four Vincent Keymer. Listen to the Dutch grandmaster’s immediate reactions. 📷 pic.twitter.com/Qp31nhhbd0
— Prague International Chess Festival (@PragueChess) February 25, 2026
That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.
That result meant Van Foreest has gained 30.2 rating points since the start of the year, including winning four games in a match against Turkish prodigy GM Ediz Gurel, to join Niemann on 2735.2 and the world number-18 spot.
For Keymer it meant dropping below Abdusattorov, whose great start to 2026 continues.
Abdusattorov 1-0 Aravindh
This was a clash between the 2024 Prague Masters winner and the 2025 winner, but their fortunes couldn’t have been more different in recent times. Aravindh’s unbeaten +3 victory in 2025 took him into the world top-15 with a 2749 rating, but since then he’s slumped back to end the day in Prague with a live rating of 2682. He said in an interview before the event began:
“I had a bad phase in the last few months, so I’m trying to recover from that and I hope this will be a great opportunity for me to come back again. This place has been lucky to me.”
At first it seemed that luck might continue, since after a fine central pawn break and capturing on b4 he was well on top on both the board and the clock against Abdusattorov.
In the end, however, it’s Abdusattorov’s momentum that continued. He posed problems, gratefully accepted Aravindh returning a pawn, and then pounced on a mistake just after the time control to take over and win.
While Aravindh won the Masters in 2025, the Challengers was won by Yakubboev, who got off to a great start in the 2026 Masters against the player who won the first ever Challengers back in 2019.
Yakubboev 1-0 Anton
This game was all but decided in the opening, where Yakubboev used no time at all as he set a trap—Anton fell for it, winning the exchange but falling into a very difficult position. What followed was a fight, with chances for the Spanish star to extricate himself, but one more slip and the Uzbekistan number three finished off in style.
The day’s other win was for the one local hero in the top event.
Navara 1-0 Maghsoodloo
For most of this game, 13-time Czech Champion Navara was strategically outplaying his dangerous opponent, but in the end everything turned on one moment. Maghsoodloo needed to put a pawn on g5 and could likely hold a fortress, but when he didn’t his opponent grabbed the chance and went on to win with a beautiful final zugwang.
That win saw Navara regain the Czech number-one spot from Van Nguyen, but there are eight more tough rounds to go, with Navara facing a wounded Keymer with Black in round two.
Pairings For Masters Round 2
The Prague Chess Festival is also about the Challengers, where 10 players compete for a spot in the next year’s Masters.
Challengers
The Challengers was every bit as lively as the Masters, with three wins and some spectacular chess.
Round 1 Results | Challengers
That split the field early on.
Standings After Round 1 | Challengers
Indian GM Surya Ganguly‘s rook sacrifice against GM Thomas Beerdsen was the most brazen move of the day. It was almost justified in the wild play that followed, but the Dutch GM is at home in chaos and was never worse before going on to pick up the full point.
Reigning Czech Champion IM Stepan Hrbek scored an impressive win with Black over Spanish GM Daniil Yuffa, while it became an even better day for the local players when IM Jachym Nemec won an astonishing clash with women’s number-two GM Zhu Jiner.
Zhu had looked to be cruising to victory, but one slip and teenage star Nemec pounced, offering a bishop sac before going on to sacrifice a rook. Zhu lost her grip in the strange new landscape and was ultimately defeated in 56 moves.
Zhu’s female colleague GM Divya Deshmukh made a draw against top seed GM Benjamin Gledura, which looks excellent on paper, though it turns out she was actually winning in the final position where the game ended in a time scramble and a draw by repetition.
It’s early days, with eight rounds to go in Prague.
How To Watch
The 2026 Prague Chess Festival takes place on February 25-March 6 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format is a round-robin with 10 players in Masters, Challengers, and Futures groups, as well as an Open tournament. 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.
Previous coverage:
