Prague Challengers 2023 R2-3: Akash misses a win against Motylev

by Shahid Ahmed - 24/06/2023

Pentala Harikrishna drew his third game in-a-row at 5th Prague International Chess Festival 2023 Masters. He had a hard fought draw against the tournament leader, Germany no.1 Vincent Keymer. Ray Robson (USA) scored the sole victory of the round in the Masters section. He played sublime chess in his first-ever rated game encounter against the legendary Boris Gelfand (ISR). Robson and Keymer are currently in the lead 2/3, followed by six players at 1.5/3 including Harikrishna. In the Challengers section, Akash G missed a golden opportunity to win against Alexander Motylev (ROU). Akash had a decisive advantage for the better part of the game. In the endgame, he had the most definite opportunity. Unfortunately for him, he overlooked it. Round 4 for Masters and Challengers, and Round 3 Open starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anežka Kružíková/Prague International Chess Festival

Bartel wins two in-a-row

GM Mateusz Bartel (POL) defeated IM Richard Stalmach (CZE) and FM Vaclav Finek (CZE) in Round 2 and 3 respectively to gain sole lead 2.5/3 in the Challengers section. In the Open event, six Indians - GM Mitrabha Guha, GM Deep Sengupta, IM Ameya Audi, Anish Gandhi, Alok Sinha and FM Sharan Rao have made a perfect start 2/2.

GM Mateusz Bartel (POL) has emerged sole leader in the Challengers section 2.5/3 | Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague International Chess Festival

Masters Round 3: Keymer - Harikrishna: 0.5-0.5

Pentala Harikrishna (2704) has never lost a rated tournament game against Vincent Keymer (GER, 2690). That remained unchanged yesterday.

Position after 11.Kxd3

White went 9.Kd2 in the anticipation of the queens getting traded. 9...Nd7 10.Bd3 Bxd3 11.Kxd3 and the game reached the above position. Keymer's fellow country mate Alexander Donchenko had this position earlier this year against Erwin l'Ami at the 85th Tata Steel Challengers 2023 in a losing effort. The game eventually ended in a draw as neither player made any mistake.

Pentala Harikrishna 1.5/3 | Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague International Chess Festival

Robson - Gelfand

Position after 19.Bc2

In his first-ever rated game against the legendary, Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2668), Ray Robson (USA, 2689) made the most out of his opportunity. He gained an exchange on the 20th move 20.Bxb3 Rxb3 after Black decided against keeping the rook as it would have made things worse for Black in a hurry. 21.Rc1 Rxb2 22.Qc3 Qxc3+ 23.Rxc3 f6 24.0-0 Kf7 the realization of White's advantage into a victory was far from easy.

Position after 31.Bxb2

White is ahead by an exchange. However, the rook is unable to gain an entry towards Black's back-rank, moreover he has his own weaknesses to worry about. 31...Kxf4 32.g3+ an attempt to make way for the rook Kf5 33.gxh4 Kg6 34.Bc1 e5 35.c5 Be2 36.Rb3 Kf7 37.Rb7 finally White got an opportunity to improve his rook Ke6 38.Rc7. White eventually went on to win the game with some precise practical play.

Ray Robson (USA) scored a sublime victory over Boris Gelfad (ISR) | Photo: Petr Vrabec/Prague International Chess Festival

Challengers Round 2: Gledura - Erwin: 1-0

GM Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2645) had faced the reigning Netherlands champion, GM Erwin l'Ami (2645) only once before in a rated game at 81st Tata Steel Challengers in 2019. The Hungarian won that game. This time also, he repeated the feat.

Position after 27.Rdh1

The sole intention of 27.Rdh1 is to crash through the h-file and land a rook on h8. How to stop that? 27...h5! 28.gxh6 Kh7 the outcome probably wouldn't have changed but it still would have kept some fighting chances. 27...Rf7 28.Rh6 Kf8 29.Bf6 Rc8 30.Rxg6 White has managed to crash through. He managed to win the game in another eight moves.

Bartel - Stalmach

Position after 23...bxc6

GM Mateusz Bartel (POL, 2609) has a crushing on IM Richard Stalmach's (CZE, 2436) kingside. Find out the correct way to finish it just like Bartel did in the game.

Finek - Bartel

Position after 19...Nxf2

Black sacrificed his knight at f2 few moves ago 15...Nxf2 with the intention of exchanging his two knights for a rook and pawn. Generally that would not be a good idea especially since his opponent has all minor pieces present on the board. However, the difference here is, White's pieces are underdeveloped, the a1-rook and c1-bishop will take some time to get into the action. Black factored it in and went ahead with his plan. The unnatural and counter-intuitive 20.Qxf2 is the correct continuation for White according to the computer. 20...Qb5 21.Bf1 Bxh3 22.Bxh3 Qxd3 23.Bf1 Qc2 24.Nc4 Qxe4 25.Bf4 is what it recommends. However, White was just a 12-year-old kid, he opted for the humane 20.Nxf2 Bf6 21.a3 Rac8 and Black went on to win in another ten moves.

Motylev - Akash

Position after 79.Kh3

GM Akash G (2483) was winning for the better part of the game against GM Alexander Motylev (ROU, 2597). His most definite opportunity arose in the endgame after 79.Kh3. Find out the finish which Black could have done.

Akash missed a golden opportunity to win against Alexander Motylev | Photo: Anežka Kružíková/Prague International Chess Festival

Schedule

The Round-Robin tournaments will take place from 21st to 30th June 2023. Every day except the last round, games will start at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST). Monday 26th June is a rest day. The ninth round game on 30th June will start at 11 a.m. local time, 2:30 p.m. IST.

Masters Crosstable after Round 3 | Photo: Prague International Chess Festival

Challengers Crosstable after Round 3 | Photo: Prague International Chess Festival

Replay live stream

5th Prague International Chess Festival 2023 Round 2 Master and Challengers live commentary by IM Lawrence Trent (ENG) and WIM Natacha Benmesbah (FRA) | Video: Prague International Chess Festival

5th Prague International Chess Festival 2023 Round 3 Master and Challengers live commentary by IM Lawrence Trent (ENG) and WIM Natacha Benmesbah (FRA) | Video: Prague International Chess Festival

Replay Round 2-3 Masters games

Replay Round 2-3 Challengers games

Masters:

Round 3 results

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	2	2690	GM	KEYMER Vincent	½ - ½	GM	HARIKRISHNA Pentala	2704	10	PGN
2	3	2689	GM	NAVARA David	½ - ½	GM	NGUYEN Thai Dai Van	2653	1	PGN
3	4	2711	GM	SHANKLAND Sam	½ - ½	GM	WANG Hao	2722	9	PGN
4	5	2685	GM	MARTIROSYAN Haik M.	½ - ½	GM	DEAC Bogdan-Daniel	2693	8	PGN
5	6	2689	GM	ROBSON Ray	1 - 0	GM	GELFAND Boris	2668	7	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	6	GM	ROBSON Ray	USA	2689	2	0	2,50	2
2	2	GM	KEYMER Vincent	GER	2690	2	0	2,50	1
3	10	GM	HARIKRISHNA Pentala	IND	2704	1,5	0	2,75	2
4	1	GM	NGUYEN Thai Dai Van	CZE	2653	1,5	0	2,50	1
5	8	GM	DEAC Bogdan-Daniel	ROU	2693	1,5	0	2,25	2
6	5	GM	MARTIROSYAN Haik M.	ARM	2685	1,5	0	2,25	1
7	3	GM	NAVARA David	CZE	2689	1,5	0	2,00	1
8	4	GM	SHANKLAND Sam	USA	2711	1,5	0	1,75	1
9	7	GM	GELFAND Boris	ISR	2668	1	0	1,50	2
	9	GM	WANG Hao	CHN	2722	1	0	1,50	2

Details

Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	10	2704	GM	HARIKRISHNA Pentala		GM	GELFAND Boris	2668	7
2	8	2693	GM	DEAC Bogdan-Daniel		GM	ROBSON Ray	2689	6
3	9	2722	GM	WANG Hao		GM	MARTIROSYAN Haik M.	2685	5
4	1	2653	GM	NGUYEN Thai Dai Van		GM	SHANKLAND Sam	2711	4
5	2	2690	GM	KEYMER Vincent		GM	NAVARA David	2689	3

Details

Challengers

Round 3 results

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	2	2436	IM	STALMACH Richard	½ - ½	GM	GLEDURA Benjamin	2645	10	PGN
2	3	2409	FM	FINEK Vaclav	0 - 1	GM	BARTEL Mateusz	2609	1	PGN
3	4	2611	GM	PECHAC Jergus	0 - 1	GM	PULTINEVICIUS Paulius	2530	9	PGN
4	5	2597	GM	MOTYLEV Alexander	½ - ½	GM	AKASH G	2483	8	PGN
5	6	2645	GM	L'AMI Erwin	0 - 1	IM	VYKOUK Jan	2467	7	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	BARTEL Mateusz	POL	2609	2,5	0	3,50	1
2	9	GM	PULTINEVICIUS Paulius	LTU	2530	2	0	2,25	2
	10	GM	GLEDURA Benjamin	HUN	2645	2	0	2,25	2
4	7	IM	VYKOUK Jan	CZE	2467	2	0	1,75	2
5	3	FM	FINEK Vaclav	CZE	2409	1,5	0	2,00	1
6	5	GM	MOTYLEV Alexander	ROU	2597	1,5	0	1,75	1
7	2	IM	STALMACH Richard	CZE	2436	1	0	2,00	1
8	4	GM	PECHAC Jergus	SVK	2611	1	0	1,50	1
9	8	GM	AKASH G	IND	2483	1	0	1,25	2
10	6	GM	L'AMI Erwin	NED	2645	0,5	0	0,75	2

Details

Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	10	2645	GM	GLEDURA Benjamin		IM	VYKOUK Jan	2467	7
2	8	2483	GM	AKASH G		GM	L'AMI Erwin	2645	6
3	9	2530	GM	PULTINEVICIUS Paulius		GM	MOTYLEV Alexander	2597	5
4	1	2609	GM	BARTEL Mateusz		GM	PECHAC Jergus	2611	4
5	2	2436	IM	STALMACH Richard		FM	FINEK Vaclav	2409	3

Details

Time Control

The time control is 90'/40 moves + 30'/end & 30"/move.

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations: Masters, Challengers and Open

Prague Chess Festival: fb. twitter, instagram and youtube

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