India’s Vidit Gujrathi finished second in the Prague Chess Festival (Masters) with a win against GM Navara David in the last round.
Coming into the last round, Gujrathi had just one outright win – against Boris Gelfand in the second round. The Indian played 1.e4 and caught him out with his opening preparation. Gelfand couldn’t remember his lines and he went wrong quickly with the move 13..c4?
But that win was cancelled out by a loss against GM Samuel Shankland in the fourth round. This time, Gujrathi fluffed his opening lines and couldn’t recover despite fighting hard.
A series of draws followed after that, including one against fellow Indian GM P Harikrishna. And that finally got Gujrathi to the ninth and final round.
With a last round win, finished second in the Prague Chess Masters. Funny how the last round makes or breaks your tournament. Congratulations to the deserved winner. @N_Vitiugov. It was a pleasure playing in @PragueChess. Taking back home lots of good memories! pic.twitter.com/dgrC4CRxoi
— Vidit Gujrathi (@viditchess) March 15, 2019
Playing black against Navara, Gujrathi managed to eke out a win in 57 moves and that helped him finish second in a high-quality field with an average rating of 2715 ELO rating points.
Russia’s Vitiugov Nikita finished first with 5.5/9 while Gujrathi, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Boris Gelfand finished in joint-second place with 5/9.
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