Vidit and Harikrishna set to square off today at Prague International Chess Festival 2022 Masters

by Shahid Ahmed - 08/06/2022

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.

Vidit Gujrathi is the highest rated player in the field | Photo: Prague International Chess Festival

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).

GM Francischo Vallejo Pons drew the number seven | Photo: Prague International Chess Festival

Czech Republic's very own GM Nguyen Thai Dai Van got the number two | Photo: Prague International Chess Festival

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).

Inauguration Ceremony | Photo: Prague International Chess Festival

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

Complete pairings

Time Control

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

Links

Official site

Prague Chess Festival: fb. twitter, instagram and youtube

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