The fifth edition of the Prague Chess Festival is in the books. The event, held in several sections, took place from June 21-30, 2023 in the capital of the Czech Republic.

All tournaments this year saw tense, exciting battles until the very end. In the Masters, a round robin with ten top GMs participating, Bogdan-Daniel Deac (Romania) and Ray Robson (USA) tied for first place scoring 5.5/9 each after all final games were drawn. To determine the champion the two played a tiebreaker. The American GM won the first game with Black then drew the second one with White and became the winner of the main event. The bronze went to the last-year champion Pentala Harikrishna.

Final standings Masters:

Tiebreaker in the Masters

In the Challengers competition, both main contenders for the title, Mateusz Bartel (Poland) and Alexander Motylev (Romania) scored last-round victories. As a result, the Polish GM retained his half-point lead over his rival, finished clear first and punched his ticket to the 2024 Masters.

Motylev is second while as many as three players tied for third position with Paulius Pultinevicius (Lithuania) taking bronze thanks the best score in their direct encounters.

Always smiling Mateusz Bartel

Final standings Challengers:

Patryk Cieslak (Poland) pulled off a crucial last-round victory win the Futures, while the rating favorite Vojtech Plat tied for first place in the Open and became the champion by dint of better Buchholz.

The Futures tournament podium

Detailed results of all tournaments can be found here.

Masters

Challengers

Photos: official website

Official website: praguechessfestival.com/