Vidit and Harikrishna set to square off today at Prague International Chess Festival 2022 Masters
The fourth edition of Prague International Chess Festival 2022 starts today. India no.2 Vidit Gujrathi and India no.3 Pentala Harikrishna are set to face each in the very first round. They got the numbers six and five respectively at the Drawing of Lots. Vidit is the highest rated player in the field. Defending champion Sam Shankland is also back to defend his title. Vidit would like to one-up his second place finish in tie-breaks in the very first edition back in 2019. The tournament has a strong field of ten players. It will be a Round-Robin event. Sasikiran is playing in the Challengers section. Round 1 starts today at 3 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. IST). Photo: Prague International Chess Festival
Sasikiran in the Challengers
Apart from Vidit, Shankland and Harikrishna, the remaining participants are - Iran no.1 Parham Maghsoodloo, World Blitz 2013 winner Le Quang Liem, Spain no.1 Francisco Vallejo Pons, Spain no.2 David Anton Guijarro, Czech Republic no.1 David Navara, UAE no.1 Salem Saleh and Czech Republic no.3 Nguyen Thai Dai Van are there. The average rating of the Masters event is 2693. That should give a good clue about the strength of this event. Krishnan Sasikiran is playing in the Challengers section which has the exact same format and schedule. The average rating of the Challengers section is 2608.
Participants
The participants are - Vidit Gujrathi, Sam Shankland (USA, 2718), Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2716), Le Quang Liem (VIE, 2709), Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP, 2703), Pentala Harikrishna (2701), David Anton Guijarro (ESP, 2692), David Navara (CZE, 2681), Salem Saleh (UAE, 2679) and Nguyen Thai Dai Van (CZE, 2610).
Pairings and Schedule
The Round-Robin tournament will take place from 8th to 17th June 2022. Everyday except the last round, games will start at 3 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. IST). Sunday 12th June is a rest day. The ninth round game on 17th June will start at 11 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. IST).
Round 1 pairings
Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
1 | 1 | 2681 | GM | Navara David | GM | Anton Guijarro David | 2692 | 10 | |||
2 | 2 | 2610 | GM | Nguyen Thai Dai Van | GM | Maghsoodloo Parham | 2716 | 9 | |||
3 | 3 | 2709 | GM | Le Quang Liem | GM | Shankland Sam | 2718 | 8 | |||
4 | 4 | 2679 | GM | Salem A.R. Saleh | GM | Vallejo Pons Francisco | 2703 | 7 | |||
5 | 5 | 2701 | GM | Harikrishna Pentala | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2723 | 6 |
Time Control
The time control is 90'/40 moves + 30'/end & 30"/move.
Links
Prague Chess Festival: fb. twitter, instagram and youtube