Finek remains atop the standings
Round four of the Challengers tournament at the Prague International Chess Festival featured two decisive games.
Top seed Benjamin Gledura halted his slide after consecutive losses in rounds two and three by defeating second seed Jonas Buhl Bjerre with the white pieces. Bjerre appeared to forget his preparation and entered a line in which White obtained a very strong initiative straight out of the opening. Gledura made full use of the early advantage and converted it without allowing his opponent any counterplay.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores one of the most intriguing and under-examined areas of modern chess: reversed opening systems, focusing on the Reversed Grünfeld and the Reversed Dutch. At first glance, these two systems seem unrelated. However, they share a common strategic challenge: the value of tempi, structure, and psychology when familiar openings are played with colours reversed. Drawing on his long professional experience, Sokolov explains why these positions are far more subtle than they appear and why traditional engine evaluations often fail to capture their true complexity.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Larsen’s b4 Plan vs Reversed Stonewall Setups: Larsen – Spassky
Jonas Buhl Bjerre | Photo: Tomáš Krist / Prague Chess Festival
The other decisive result of the day saw Daniil Yuffa scoring a second consecutive win. After beating Gledura in the previous round, Yuffa prevailed with white in his game against Zhu Jiner. The result moved him into the chasing group, just behind the tournament leader.
The remaining three games ended in draws, including the encounter between sole leader Vaclav Finek and Divya Deshmukh. Playing black, the 16-year-old Finek did not manage to press for an advantage, missing his main opportunity in the middlegame.
Instead of the stronger 20…Bxh3, he opted for 20…Qxc2?!, after which the game remained balanced and was eventually agreed drawn. After the sacrifice on h3, there might follow 20…Bxh3 21.Nh4 Qxc2 22.Rc1 Qd2 23.Nf3 Bd7 (diagram below), and Black gets to keep his extra pawn.
With this result, Finek retains the outright lead on 3 points from 4 games. Four players are half a point behind him on 2½/4: Yuffa, Thomas Beerdsen, Jachym Nemec and Stepan Hrbek. In Sunday’s fifth round, the last before the rest day, Finek will have the white pieces against Yuffa in a key encounter at the top of the table.
Divya Deshmukh v. Vaclav Finek | Photo: Tomáš Krist / Prague Chess Festival