After a rest day, round six is on Tuesday, March 4, starting at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 7:30 p.m. IST.
Masters: Wei Scores Again, Keymer Misses Chance
In the four draws, GM Vincent Keymer was the only one who achieved a significant advantage. He was better on the black side of the Berlin Defense against GM Liem Le, but proving it turned out to be too difficult in practice.
Masters Round 5 Results
With four draws, the standings are mostly unchanged except that Wei has slipped into the four-player pack on 2.5 points.
Masters Standings After Round 5
Praggnanandhaa ½-½ Aravindh
With a rest day to look forward to, neither leader risked his standing in the tournament. We saw a very solid Berlin Defense where White asked a few questions and Black passed the test without a doubt.
GM Anish Giri, who joined the broadcast to talk about his game and discuss the others, joked that Aravindh's reputation as a tricky, tactical player is just a front: "That's the trick, you know. You pretend to be tactical like Aravindh, and then you make an easy draw in the Berlin!"
That's the trick, you know. You pretend to be tactical like Aravindh, and then you make an easy draw in the Berlin!
—Anish Giri
A solid draw. Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.
Le ½-½ Keymer
GM Peter Leko, who was on at the start of the broadcast, was critical of the opening play by Keymer (his student) in the other Berlin Defense of the day—for example, castling too early. Le, with his decades of experience, was familiar with the position—so much so that by 11.h4 Nf8 he had a minute more than he had started with, while Keymer had used 24 minutes.
Le's experience gave him a practical advantage. Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.
Keymer, on his own without the advantage of experience or memory, navigated the position sufficiently, however. And soon, White's aggression on the kingside came to a screeching halt after Black got in the moves 14...f6 and 15...h6—"Cemento," as Leko would say! Slowly, the German number-one started to outplay his opponent.
Despite the result, this was the most complicated game of the day, and GM Rafael Leitao analyzes it below. Not all Berlins are equal!
Shankland 0-1 Wei
Wei had the worst start of the tournament and was in last place with 0.5 points after three rounds. But going into the rest day, he has now won two consecutive games to end on 50 percent—a huge recovery as he's back on the scoreboard. He said after the game, "Of course, I felt very disappointed after [losing twice], but I had to continue to play and fight for the win."
I had to continue to play and fight for the win.
—Wei Yi
Yesterday's Game of the Day was played by the Chinese number-one, and in round five it was a close call between this one and Le vs. Keymer. This was clearly the most chaotic position in the playing hall after 12 moves when Black played the burning pawn sacrifice 12...e5!.
"This ...e5 move had an incredible impact on Shankland," said Leko, and the American GM spent under 30 seconds thinking before he played the losing move 14.Qa4?? in response. Wei converted the advantage with not just precise but beautiful tactics.
Shankland's played ambitiously every round, but it has backfired. Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.
Yes, it was a short game due to a terrible mistake, but Wei also gave absolutely zero chances whatsoever, and he advised: "In a winning position, you should play without any risk. You should not give your opponent good counterplay." Easier said than done!
The Chinese grandmaster, who's actually in Prague for the first time in his life, took a step away from chess to focus on his university studies, but his return to chess was etched in history when he won the 2024 Tata Steel Chess. Asked on the broadcast whether he's a full-time chess professional now, he answered affirmatively: "I think now chess is the most important part of my life, and I spend my day playing chess."
As for his goals for 2025, it's been a slow start but he still has the goal of competing for the world championship title: "I don't think I had good a start of 2025 because in Wijk aan Zee I played so many drawn games [12 draws, one win], and in this tournament I started with two losses, but I still wanted to try and fight for the Candidates. But, of course, it's not very easy."
I still wanted to try and fight for the Candidates.
—Wei Yi
Giri ½-½ Van Nguyen
It's the fifth draw in a row for Giri, who managed to replace his glasses from the previous day, but it's not like he hasn't been trying. Sometimes things click, sometimes they don't, as he explained:
I remember now all the issues of classical chess from when I used to play it a lot. You know, sometimes you are losing all the games, sometimes you have the frustrations building as you are not getting any chances day after day... sometimes you have nice tournaments... but it's good now, a rest day and I have four very interesting games coming up, so I am looking forward for sure.
Another game with no big chances for Giri. Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.
He's had three solid draws with Black and met a well-prepared GM David Navara in his only previous white game. Last time he tried to catch his opponent with the theoretical approach, but in this round with White he went for a more ambiguous Reti Opening. "It's not my main opening, of course," he said. "It is Hikaru's, but I think I still know more about it than Hikaru. I think he just plays it without studying; he just plays with his experience."
There were many subtleties as he was essentially playing a black opening with reversed colors. What he got in the game was a Semi-Slav with two extra moves, but even that—pretty shockingly—wasn't enough for a significant edge.
Navara ½-½ Gurel
GM Ediz Gurel's mother told the commentators at the start of the day that a draw before the rest day would be considered a success. If that was the goal, then it's mission accomplished for the 16-year-old Turkish prodigy who had a tough loss in round one but has otherwise had four solid draws.
A solid way to reach the rest day. Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague Chess Festival.
The draw wasn't for a lack of trying from Navara, who offered a pawn sacrifice in the opening with 7.e4. Rather than accept it, however, Gurel went with the solid 7...Be7 and later sacrificed a pawn himself for a position he knew he knew he could hold. Though White had an extra b-pawn, he could not make use of it. Eventually, Black equalized the pawn count, and the game ended in peace.
Aravindh will have White against Le, while Praggnanandhaa will defend with Black against an injured, but rested, Shankland. Keymer, Le, Giri, and Wei are all a point behind.
Pairings For Round 6 | Masters
Challengers: Yakubboev Takes Sole Lead
There were three decisive games in the Challengers that produced a sole leader. GM Nodirbek Yakubboev outplayed FM Jachym Nemec in a wild game that saw four queens on the board. GM Ivan Salgado Lopez's experimental opening paid off against IM Vaclav Finek, and GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi ground out a win (his second in a row now) in the knight endgame against IM Divya Deshmukh, who came close to drawing it.
Round 5 Results | Challengers
After winning for a third time, Yakubboev is in the sole lead, with GM Jonas Bjerre just a half-point behind. Salgado, who had lost in round three, is back in the mix on 3/5 after his win as well.
Standings After Round 5 | Challengers
The most inventive opening in either section was certainly Salgado's early 4.g4!? in the Reti Opening. While he was in big trouble at some point, his attack ended up working, and he won in a knight and rook endgame. Don't try this at home!
Yakubboev's finish was the most stylish of the day, where both sides promoted to queens at the same time. A deserved victory after a hard-fought and mostly equal game until the time trouble.
The leader will next have the black pieces against GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis, who lost his first game but then has made four draws. A half-point behind, Bjerre will have his own difficult pairing against a reinvigorated Maurizzi.
Pairings For Round 6 | Challengers
How to review?
You can check out the games on our dedicated events page.
The 2025 Prague Chess Festival takes place on February 26-March 7 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format is a round-robin with 10 players. 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.
