Aravindh Wins Prague Chess Masters, Now World Number-14

GM Aravindh Chithambaram won the 2025 Prague Chess Festival Masters with a draw in the last round against GM Ediz Gurel. Having previously won the 2024 Chennai Grand Masters, the 25-year-old "late bloomer" has won the only two super-tournaments he's participated in and finishes with a peak live rating of 2743.

GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu could have played spoiler in the final round if he had won on demand to force playoffs. Instead, he lost against GM Anish Giri, who scored his second consecutive win and finished in a tie for second-fourth with Praggnanandhaa and GM Wei Yi. All other games ended in draws.

In the 2025 Prague Chess Festival Challengers, GM Nodirbek Yakubboev beat GM Jonas Bjerre to qualify for next year's edition of the Masters.

Masters: Aravindh Lands Safely Despite Not Sleeping

The biggest intrigue was the Giri-Praggnanandhaa game, which could have altered the title winner. Shortly before Praggnanandhaa resigned, Gurel offered Aravindh a draw, and the latter quickly accepted, winning the tournament.

Masters Round 9 Results

Aravindh won the tournament by a full point. Giri, who hadn't won a game until the penultimate round, finished strongly to join the three-way tie at the last minute. 

Masters Standings After Round 9

While it's an incredible personal achievement, Aravindh's win also represents a continuation of what Women's World Rapid Champion Koneru Humpy called the "golden era" for Indian chess, which came together most emphatically in 2024.

With Praggnanandhaa winning Tata Steel Chess 2025 at the start of the year and Aravindh taking the Prague Chess Masters (not to mention the online sphere, like GM Arjun Erigaisi winning Freestyle Friday two weeks in a row), the Indian chess machine doesn't seem to be slowing down. GM Pranav Venkatesh just won the 2025 FIDE World Junior Championship U20 as well. Aravindh only adds another name to an illustrious roster of heavy hitters.

Giri 1-0 Praggnanandhaa

Giri shut down the possibility of any playoffs. He came well-prepared for the King's Indian Defense and showed off several lines in the interview afterward. For instance, he knew that Praggnanandhaa's chosen setup with 10...Nbd7 and 11...a6 was introduced by GM Ruslan Ponomariov against GM Vladimir Kramnik in 2011—not from his preparation but because he was there when that game was played.

The opening was a success for Giri, who understood the lines through and through. "I was very lucky that we were fighting on my terms," he said. After White nursed a standard advantage, Praggnanandhaa desperately sacrificed a piece for two pawns, but Giri's pieces were better placed—"with the [black] knight not coming to g4, I'm just having a lot of fun for free," he explained.

When the tactics exploded, Giri actually missed the move 27...Bg4?, but he took off his jacket, calculated, and found the only winning move 28.Bxf7!. He joked, "I saw the win first, and then I removed the jacket to see if without the jacket it also works." The conversion was ruthless, and GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day. 

Even Giri didn't expect to win his last two games. Until Friday, it had been an underwhelming performance for someone of his caliber. Despite thinking he "played okay" in the other rounds, he managed to make just six draws before losing to Aravindh in round seven. 

What changed? He ate hot pot with IM Sagar Shah and GM Harshit Raja for dinner before both of his wins. He quipped: "Now I'm only going to play tournaments in locations where there's a hot pot restaurant." He also said that he had stopped caring about his rating: "I stopped caring about my rating. It's way too low [at 2739], so it doesn't matter."

It turned out to be a good tournament for Giri, and he gained two rating points. Praggnanandhaa will be ruing what could have been, but he loses no rating—it stays the same.

Gurel ½-½ Aravindh

The only intrigue in this game was whether Gurel could defeat the champion-to-be. Aravindh, who made a quick draw the day before—and actually missed a virtually winning move in a Berlin endgame—revealed he'd struggled with the pressure after taking the sole lead in round seven: "I'm extremely tired, to be honest. I did not sleep for the last two days because of the tournament pressure."

 I did not sleep for the last two days because of the tournament pressure.

—Aravindh Chithambaram

Aravindh came with a surprise on move one: the Caro-Kann Defense, and he said that his opponent would have expected 1...e5. Even still, Gurel achieved a space advantage against the "come and get me" 4...Bd7 line, but there was no clear way forward. The computer labels the breakthrough 37.a5, played, a mistake because the position immediately becomes equal. But when pressed to show the way forward, the computer continues to shuffle and the evaluation drops. White's position was pretty, but beauty doesn't score points in chess. 

Aravindh said that his best game in the tournament was the one against Giri, where he played a brilliant knight sacrifice. "That was smooth. In other games, I misplayed it here and there, but in the Anish game I played a good one," he said. 

He also thanked several people, including renowned trainer GM Ramachandran Ramesh and a few part-time seconds whom he did not name. He dedicated the win to GM Sundararajan Kidambi, who spoke to him on the phone at difficult points in the tournament and has given him life advice.

As for what's next, he said he's already received several tournament invitations—and was receiving them during the tournament. He has been invited to the Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz in Poland and said that he plans to accept. He will also participate in the Sharjah Masters and the Biel Chess Festival. He doesn't have a long-term goal, but in the short term he plans to reach 2800!

"My short-term goal is to reach 2800. I will try to do it within two years," says Aravindh after winning the Prague Chess Masters! pic.twitter.com/Ef7yFyBIVN

— chess24 (@chess24com) March 7, 2025

Le ½-½ Wei

It was unlikely, but if Aravindh lost and Praggnanandhaa drew, a win for Wei would have meant he'd make it to the playoffs. While nearly impossible, such an outcome nearly occurred for GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov a month ago in Tata Steel Chess 2025, except that he didn't win on demand. Nevertheless, Wei finished in the tie for second-fourth.

It was the penultimate game to end, but the result was never really in doubt as both players exhibited 99-percent accuracy in a Queen's Gambit Declined Ragozin Defense. GM Liem Le declined a threefold repetition and tried to press in the endgame, but Wei's setup was impregnable. 

Navara ½-½ Shankland 

After a deep theoretical battle, GM Sam Shankland finished with just three minutes less than he had started with, while GM David Navara was really using his time. In the sharp Sicilian Four Knights with 11.Ke2, we saw a long progression of tactics, but they'd all been played before. White sacrificed his queen, promoted a pawn to regain it, and then sacrificed the exchange, but 33.b4 was the first new move. The players found a repetition five moves later.

It's not a bad tournament for either player, with both finishing with 4/9 and staying around the same rating. Navara made eight draws and lost once in round four, while Shankland reached the same final score but with two wins and three losses.

Van Nguyen ½-½ Keymer

GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen brought a "really nice novelty" (in the words of Giri) to his game against GM Vincent Keymer in a main line Marshall Attack—an opening that has been so tested that at the elite level, White's given up on any advantage, despite winning a pawn in the opening.

The idea paid dividends as the Czech grandmaster blockaded and ultimately won the isolated d5-pawn. All that was left was to convert the pawn-up advantage in the endgame, which is always easier said than done against a resourceful player like Keymer. In time trouble, Van Nguyen, with a minute left, let the point slip—and Keymer avoided a third loss.

With a 50-percent score, Keymer loses two points while Van Nguyen ends the tournament in last place on 3/9. 

Challengers: Yakubboev Wins Blitz Tiebreaks

There was plenty of action in the Challengers as we saw four white wins and just one draw. Critically, Bjerre won on demand against FM Jachym Nemec to reach playoffs against Yakubboev, who made the only draw.

In the other games, IM Divya Deshmukh finished on a high note by winning for a second time, against GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis. GM Ma Qun won his second game of the event against IM Richard Stalmach, while GM Ivan Salgado Lopez forfeited against GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi in a no-show.

Round 8 Results | Challengers

Yakubboev and Bjerre finished with an impressive 7/9, a point ahead of the rest. In the end, it was Yakubboev who won the tiebreaks in the second game.

Standings After Round 8 | Challengers

Yakubboev, whom everyone expected would make an easy draw with the white pieces against an opponent 200 points lower-rated, actually got into real trouble. Black had an advantage with play against White's isolated pawns, but he took a repetition of moves for the draw.

That gave an opening for Bjerre, who punished the blunder 43...Bc5?? with 44.Nh6!, a pretty rejoinder that prompted immediate resignation with a smile on his opponent's face.

Then we were off to the playoffs.

After a crazy draw where both players decisively misplayed the endgame, the second encounter was decisive. It's a sad end for Bjerre, who won a free pawn with a discovered attack, but then went on to misplace his bishop on a5—just nerves—and next blundered a full exchange in one move. Yakubboev not only survived a bad position but won it.

That means that when the Prague Chess Festival returns, Yakubboev will play in the Masters section, just as Gurel did this year.

Lastly, Sara Maria Sunea of Romania won the first-ever all-female Futures section and entry into the open tournament next year. Congratulations!

How to review?

The 2025 Prague Chess Festival took place on February 26-March 7 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format was a round-robin with 10 players. The time control was 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:

• Round 8: Giri, Wei Bounce Back With Wins
• Round 7: Aravindh Plays Brilliant Knight Sacrifice, Jumps To Sole Lead
• Round 6: Gurel, Praggnanandhaa Come Close But No Cigar
• Round 5: Wei Scores 2nd Win In 27 Moves
• Round 4: Praggnanandhaa Beats Keymer, Leads With Aravindh By 1 Point
• Round 3: Aravindh Takes Sole Lead; Keymer, Praggnanandhaa Pick Up Wins
• Round 2: Aravindh Beats Keymer, Leads With Shankland
• Round 1: Keymer, Shankland Take Early Lead; Aravindh Survives