Three decisive results highlighted round seven of the Challengers tournament at the Prague International Chess Festival. Vaclav Finek maintained his full-point lead after drawing a marathon endgame against Benjamin Gledura. Daniil Yuffa and Jachym Nemec advanced to joint second place with victories, while Surya Shekhar Ganguly secured his first win of the event.
Round seven of the Challengers section at the Prague International Chess Festival featured a return to decisive action, with three of the five games ending in wins. Vaclav Finek, the 16-year-old Czech International Master and tournament leader, faced top seed Benjamin Gledura with the white pieces. The game became the longest of the day, simplifying into a rook and knight endgame by move 28, where Finek held an extra pawn.
Engines assessed the position as balanced initially, but Gledura gradually improved his coordination and created practical challenges. By move 46, Gledura's queenside passed pawn forced Finek to sacrifice his knight for two additional doubled pawns on the f-file. Exchanges led to a theoretical rook and knight versus rook endgame, known to be drawable. Despite this, Gledura pressed for over 40 moves, including with an extra piece from move 91, until the players agreed to a draw on move 134.
Prior to the round, Thomas Beerdsen and Stepan Hrbek shared second place, a point behind Finek. Both lost their games, allowing their opponents to take over those positions. Daniil Yuffa defeated Beerdsen in a sharp struggle, and Jachym Nemec earned a technical win against Hrbek by outplaying him in a strategically favorable position. Yuffa and Nemec now trail Finek by one point each, with two rounds left.
In the other decisive game, Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat Zhu Jiner for his first victory of the tournament. Finek retains his lead by a full point.
