GM Jorden van Foreest took the sole lead in the 2026 Prague Chess Festival Masters with a victory over GM Nodirbek Yakubboev in round four. GM Vincent Keymer secured his first win of the tournament by defeating GM Aravindh Chithambaram. The other three games ended in draws, including a marathon 72-move battle between world champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju and GM David Navara.
In round four of the 2026 Prague Chess Festival Masters, held at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic, five hard-fought games produced just two decisive results. GM Jorden van Foreest, playing black against GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, emerged victorious after Yakubboev declined a three-fold repetition draw and later collapsed in time pressure during a complex middlegame. Van Foreest, now on 3/4 points, gained 35.2 rating points this year to reach 2740.2, surpassing world champion Gukesh by 0.7 points on the live rating list. He remarked, "I feel like lately I’ve been having a lot of things go my way!" though he admitted, "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."
The other win came from GM Vincent Keymer, who beat defending champion GM Aravindh Chithambaram in a game where Aravindh employed the Philidor Defense for the third time in the tournament. Keymer called it "a dream for White" compared to other openings like the Anti-Marshall or Berlin, and he converted his advantage after Aravindh erred. Post-game, Keymer said, "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."
Draws included GM Gukesh's 72-move game against GM David Navara, where Gukesh held a 40-minute clock advantage and promising position but missed chances on move 38.Rd4?!. GM Hans Niemann nearly defeated GM Parham Maghsoodloo after exploiting a time-troubled blunder but faltered later; Niemann tweeted support for Iran amid ongoing conflict, echoing GM Hikaru Nakamura. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew with GM David Anton Guijarro after tenacious defense.
Standings place Van Foreest alone in first, with Navara and Abdusattorov on 2.5 points. In the Challengers section, GM Benjamin Gledura and GM Daniil Yuffa won their games, while IM Vaclav Finek held the lead with a draw against GM Divya Deshmukh. Round five pairings feature Van Foreest against Niemann and Abdusattorov versus Gukesh. The tournament runs February 25 to March 6 under a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes thereafter, with a 30-second increment from move one.
