GM Jorden van Foreest is now the sole leader of the 2026 Prague Chess Festival Masters on 3/4 after beating GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, with the Dutch star overtaking World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju on the live rating list. Gukesh was frustrated by fine defense from GM David Navara, while GM Hans Niemann missed a win against GM Parham Maghsoodloo. The day’s other win in the Masters was scored by GM Vincent Keymer, who was the latest to exploit GM Aravindh Chithambaram’s faith in his Philidor Defense.
Round five begins on Sunday, March 1, starting at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 7:30 p.m. IST.
Masters: Keymer, Van Foreest Win
We had five incredibly hard-fought games in the Masters, but only two decisive results.
Round 4 Results: Masters
Van Foreest’s third win in four games has given him the sole lead as we approach the halfway point in the tournament.
Standings After Round 4: Masters
There were no quiet draws in round four of the Masters, with the most evenly-balanced game, Gukesh vs. Navara, also the day’s longest. Gukesh had built up an over 40-minute lead on the clock before he began to use any time himself and had a promising position. Navara never cracked, however, and both players got down to seconds as the time control approached.
Although the game stretched to move 72, real winning chances slipped away when Gukesh played 38.Rd4?! with five seconds to spare.
Navara’s win in round one followed by three draws puts him in second place, half a point behind the leader, where he’s joined by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who has exactly the same record. Abdusattorov also had to defend tenaciously, against GM David Anton, who might have had real winning chances if he’d pushed his a-pawn one square farther on move 36.
The day’s third draw looked like it was going to be a brilliant win for Niemann, who pounced on Maghsoodloo’s 32…Ng4?, played when he was down to 42 seconds to his opponent’s almost 23 minutes. Niemann went on to do everything right, until one far-from-obvious misstep cost the win.
It was a tough day for Iranian GM Maghsoodloo to be playing chess, with Niemann referring to the conflict in a post-game tweet.
With faith, victory is inevitable. 🦁🦁🦁 pic.twitter.com/Hl0IwIH0dT
— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) February 28, 2026
That echoed GM Hikaru Nakamura.
May the lion roar once again after nearly 50 years.
— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) February 28, 2026
That brings us to the day’s two decisive games.
Keymer 1-0 Aravindh
For a third time in Prague this year, Aravindh chose to play the Philidor Defense, a decision welcomed by his opponent. Keymer commented, “If you compare it to anything else, the Anti-Marshall, Berlin, Petroff, of course it’s a dream for White,” though he did add that none of the complete refutations he tried to find actually worked.
Nevertheless, Keymer was still “in book” until his opponent erred and went on to win an excellent game, featuring the white king finding safety simply by shuffling one square to the left. That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.
Keymer was pleased to be back on 50 percent after a shaky start. He told WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili: “Finally a good game—it took some time! I still felt a bit tired as this Freestyle World Championship was only a few days, but it had a very tiring format.”
Finally a good game—it took some time!
—Vincent Keymer
A full point ahead of Keymer, however, is the player of the moment, Jorden van Foreest.
Yakubboev 0-1 Van Foreest
Yet another win for Van Foreest has seen him gain 35.2 rating points for the year to climb to the number-14 spot on the live rating list. That may become number 15 after GM Sergey Karjakin officially became active again, but it’s noteworthy that Van Foreest, at 2740.2, is now rated 0.7 points above the world champion.
“I feel like lately I’ve been having a lot of things go my way!” said the Dutch number-two, who confessed, “I wasn’t playing for a win at all today. I just decided to be solid from the opening, and I didn’t really like my position.”
Yakubboev could have taken a draw by three-fold repetition but ultimately decided to play on. That choice was justified—but not the amount of time it burned up, so that at the critical moment instead of spotting a chance to be much better, he collapsed in a few moves.
Van Foreest has a deserved lead but faces a tough test against Niemann in round five, when the most hotly-awaited contest will be the always intense Abdusattorov vs. Gukesh. Their clash in Wijk aan Zee ended abruptly with a blunder by Gukesh that neither player could explain.
Masters Round 5 Pairings
Challengers: Gledura, Yuffa Grab Wins
There were also two decisive games in the Challengers.
Round 4 Results: Challengers
IM Vaclav Finek’s defense of a tricky position against GM Divya Deshmukh was enough for him to keep the sole lead, though GM Daniil Yuffa moved within half a point after his second win in a row.
Standings After Round 4: Challengers
Yuffa took down GM Zhu Jiner, who couldn’t parry the pawn storm that was launched against her king and has again slipped back to third on the women’s live rating list.
GM Thomas Beerdsen could have caught Finek in the lead but missed some wins against IM Jachym Nemec in the last game to finish in the top two sections of the Prague Chess Festival. The day’s other win went to top-seed GM Benjamin Gledura, who defeated second-seed GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre.
Gledura was on the back of two losses in a row, and explained, “I just somehow had to not lose my mind after those two games!”
He came up with a plan in the Sicilian that worked better than he could possibly have dreamed, as Bjerre stumbled into a trap and was lost on move eight, with Gledura commenting, “I kind of feel sorry for him because it’s just a one-move mistake, and on a high level it’s almost resignable.”
“I was surprised on move one!” Gledura quipped about his first three games, so he was perhaps due for some of his preparation to work out perfectly.
How To Watch
The 2026 Prague Chess Festival takes place on February 25-March 6 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format is a round-robin with 10 players in Masters, Challengers, and Futures groups, as well as an Open tournament. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting on move one.
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