In round three of the 2026 Prague Chess Festival Masters, Dutch grandmaster Jorden van Foreest upset world champion D Gukesh with a rook sacrifice, moving into a four-way tie for the lead. The remaining games ended in draws, while Gukesh dropped to a tie for last place. Indian grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram secured a draw against Parham Maghsoodloo.
The 2026 Prague Chess Festival, held at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic, from February 25 to March 6, features round-robin tournaments in the Masters, Challengers, and Futures sections with 10 players each. Round three of the Masters took place on February 27, 2026, producing one decisive result amid four draws.
Playing white in the Ruy Lopez opening's Tartakower variation, Van Foreest seized the initiative with the bishop pair and later sacrificed a rook for a knight on d4, putting Gukesh under heavy pressure. The Indian world champion lost a pawn after the queens were traded, leading to a 48-move rook and minor piece endgame where Van Foreest converted his advantage on the kingside. This marked Van Foreest's first victory against Gukesh, despite prior losses to him, and his second major scalp in the event after beating top seed Vincent Keymer in round one.
Van Foreest commented, "Of course, I’m super happy! Not only is it my first win against a world champion, but also my first win against Gukesh. Even before he was world champion, I played him a couple of times, but I never won against him, and he won against me several times." On the sacrifice, he added, "He was looking rather calm, and I was like, am I missing something? I didn’t see it, so I thought I had to go for it." After Gukesh pondered deeply, Van Foreest noted, "I’m up a pawn, there’s really no risk—in the worst case it’s a draw, and for him the defense will be always very difficult, even with best play, so I was happy."
The win propelled Van Foreest to 2/3 points, tying him for first with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, and David Navara. Gukesh, with 1 point, shares last place with Keymer, Hans Niemann, and Maghsoodloo. Aravindh Chithambaram drew against Maghsoodloo in 30 moves by repetition after an early queen trade in a Caro-Kann Defense variation, earning 1.5 points alongside David Anton.
Other draws included Navara versus Anton, and harder-fought ties in Abdusattorov-Keymer and Yakubboev-Niemann, where the Uzbeks had winning chances but faltered. In the Challengers section, all five games were decisive, with 16-year-old Vaclav Finek taking sole lead at 2.5/3 after beating Stepan Hrbek. Indians Surya Ganguly and Divya Deshmukh suffered losses to Jachym Nemec and Zhu Jiner, respectively.
Round four pairings include Gukesh against Navara, with play starting February 28 at 3 p.m. CET. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes, with a 30-second increment from move one.
