Prague Chess Festival 2026 R3: Jorden van Foreest beats Gukesh, Divya lost to Zhu Jiner
It was a bad day for Indian players in round 3 of the Prague International Chess Festival 2026, as in the Masters section, World Champion D Gukesh blundered in the opening and lost to Jorden Van Foreest. Meanwhile, in the Challengers section, both Indian participants, Divya Deshmukh and Surya Shekhar Ganguly, lost their respective games. Gukesh and Divya are on 1/3 points with 2 draws, while Surya is on 0.5/3 points. Defending Champion Aravindh Chithambaram played a solid draw against Parham Maghsoodloo in the 3rd round, and he is on 1.5/3 points. The 4th round for Masters, Challengers, and Futures, and the 3rd round of Open starts today at 3 pm local time, 7:30 pm IST. Photos: Abhyudaya Ram
All decisive results in the Challengers section
The Prague Challengers 2026 got a great start with many decisive results in the previous rounds. In round 3, all five games were decisive. In the Masters, we saw 4 draws and just one decisive result in which Gukesh lost against Jorden.
Prague Masters 2026
In the 3rd round of the Prague Masters 2026, defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram drew his game against Parham Maghsoodloo, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs Vincent Keymer was also a draw. Nodirbek Yakubboev created some chances against Hans Niemann, but eventually that game also ended in a draw. Local star David Navara drew with David Anton Guijarro, and D Gukesh lost his game against Jorden Van Foreest.
Jorden van Foreest vs D Gukesh (1-0)
The game started with Gukesh having a big advantage on the clock out of the opening, but on move 17, Gukesh blundered, and Jorden got a nice advantage that he eventually converted to win this game. This is Jorden's second victory of the tournament
Gukesh played a surprising 17.Qb8, and after playing the move, he saw 18.Rxd4 is coming up with some interesting ideas. Jorden van Foreest took some time to calculate the variations, but he played the best move 18.Rxd4 in the position followed by 19.e5 to eventually win one extra pawn.
This was Gukesh's last chance to try to save the position by trading the queens here with Qxe3 and get his knight into the game, but he decided to play 25.Rc8 that allowed Jorden to play 26.e6 and have a comfortable position with an extra pawn in the endgame
Aravindh Chithambaram vs Parham Maghsoodloo (0.5-0.5)
Aravindh allowed early queen trade with Parham on move 4, playing with the white pieces. Aravindh decided to play this endgame, but both played some solid chess, and the game ended in a draw after 30 moves.
Prague Challengers 2026
In the 3rd round of Prague Challengers 2026, all 5 games were decisive, where Zhu Jiner beat Divya Deshmukh with the white pieces, and Surya Shekhar Ganguly lost to Jachym Nemec. IM Vaclav Finek is leading the challengers section after winning his game in the 3rd round against IM Stepan Hrbek. Jonas Buhl Bjerre won against Thomas Beerdsen, and GM Daniil Yuffa defeated Benjamin Gledura with the white pieces.
Zhu Jiner vs Divya Deshmukh (1-0)
Divya decided to play the Benko Gambit against Jiner, and this decision backfired as Jiner captured the pawn and kept it till the endgame to win this important game against Divya. This is Jiner's first win after consecutive losses in starting 2 rounds
Surya Shekhar Ganguly vs Jachym Nemec (0-1)
IM Jachym Nemec is in really good form as he won his first round against Zhu Jiner, but he lost his second round in a complex battle against tournament leader IM Vaclav Finek. In the 3rd round, Jachym got an active position out of the opening, and he sacrificed an exchange to gain a big advantage and eventually converted the game.
After Surya played 23.g3, Jachym Nemec captured 23...Rxe3 sacrifices the rook, getting a great position. The weak king and misplaced pieces of Surya led Jachym to win this game.
Standings
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Participants
Previous winners
Venue: Don Giovanni Hotel Prague
Don Giovanni Hotel Prague is a 4-star hotel located in Prague's popular residential area of Vinohrady in proximity to the city centre. It is a modern city hotel built in 1995, and it is named after Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. The Hotel provides 412 spacious, air-conditioned guest rooms, and the majority of them offer exceptional views of Prague. Don Giovanni has 5 restaurants and bars. The Hotel also has one of the biggest conference capacities in Prague.
Schedule
The Round-Robin tournaments will take place from 25th February to 6th March 2026. Every day except the last round, games will start at 3 p.m. local time, 7:30 p.m. IST. Monday, 2nd March, is a rest day. The ninth game on 6th March will start at 11 a.m. local time, 3:30 p.m. IST.
Live Stream
Replay Round 3 Masters games
Replay Round 3 Challengers games
Round 3 Masters results
Bo. | No. | Rtg |
| White | Result | Black |
| Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 2691 | GM | ½ - ½ | GM | 2725 | 10 | |||||
2 | 3 | 2705 | GM | 1 - 0 | GM | 2754 | 1 | |||||
3 | 4 | 2628 | GM | ½ - ½ | GM | 2666 | 9 | |||||
4 | 5 | 2751 | GM | ½ - ½ | GM | 2776 | 8 | |||||
5 | 6 | 2700 | GM | ½ - ½ | GM | 2708 | 7 |
Standings after Round 3
Rk. | SNo |
| Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | GM | 2691 | 2 | 0 | 2,5 | 1 | |||
5 | GM | 2751 | 2 | 0 | 2,5 | 1 | ||||
3 | 4 | GM | 2628 | 2 | 0 | 2,25 | 1 | |||
4 | 3 | GM | 2705 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||
5 | 9 | GM | 2666 | 1,5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |||
6 | 6 | GM | 2700 | 1,5 | 0 | 1,5 | 1 | |||
7 | 1 | GM | 2754 | 1 | 1 | 1,5 | 0 | |||
10 | GM | 2725 | 1 | 1 | 1,5 | 0 | ||||
9 | 8 | GM | 2776 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |||
10 | 7 | GM | 2708 | 1 | 3 | 1,75 | 0 |
Round 4 pairings
Bo. | No. | Rtg |
| White | Result | Black |
| Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 | 2725 | GM | GM | 2708 | 7 | ||||||
2 | 8 | 2776 | GM | GM | 2700 | 6 | ||||||
3 | 9 | 2666 | GM | GM | 2751 | 5 | ||||||
4 | 1 | 2754 | GM | GM | 2628 | 4 | ||||||
5 | 2 | 2691 | GM | GM | 2705 | 3 |
Round 3 Challengers results
Bo. | No. | Rtg |
| White | Result | Black |
| Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 2604 | GM | 1 - 0 | GM | 2652 | 10 | |||||
2 | 3 | 2578 | GM | 1 - 0 | GM | 2497 | 1 | |||||
3 | 4 | 2538 | IM | 1 - 0 | IM | 2463 | 9 | |||||
4 | 5 | 2568 | GM | 0 - 1 | IM | 2466 | 8 | |||||
5 | 6 | 2525 | GM | 0 - 1 | GM | 2629 | 7 |
Standings after Round 3
Rk. | SNo |
| Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4 | IM | 2538 | 2,5 | 0 | 5 | 2 | |||
2 | 7 | GM | 2629 | 2 | 1 | 3,5 | 1 | |||
3 | 9 | IM | 2463 | 2 | 2 | 2,5 | 2 | |||
4 | 8 | IM | 2466 | 2 | 2 | 1,5 | 2 | |||
5 | 6 | GM | 2525 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||
6 | 2 | GM | 2604 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
7 | 3 | GM | 2578 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
8 | 1 | GM | 2497 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |||
9 | 5 | GM | 2568 | 0,5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||
10 | 10 | GM | 2652 | 0,5 | 0 | 0,5 | 0 |
Round 4 pairings
Bo. | No. | Rtg |
| White | Result | Black |
| Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 | 2652 | GM | GM | 2629 | 7 | ||||||
2 | 8 | 2466 | IM | GM | 2525 | 6 | ||||||
3 | 9 | 2463 | IM | GM | 2568 | 5 | ||||||
4 | 1 | 2497 | GM | IM | 2538 | 4 | ||||||
5 | 2 | 2604 | GM | GM | 2578 | 3 |
Time Control
90 Minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 Minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move 1
Links
Tournament Regulations: Masters, Challengers, Futures, Open
Prague Chess Festival: Facebook. Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
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