Former Indian National Chess Champion Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram added another feather to his cap by winning the just concluded prestigious Prague Masters Chess Championship 2025.
Aravindh Chithambaram had recently bagged the Champion’s Trophy in the Chennai Grandmaster’s Chess Tournament, 2024, ahead of stalwarts such as Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian.
In the Prague Masters, Aravindh Chithambaram scored a crushing victory over the first runners up Anish Giri in style of Grandmaster Savielly Tartakover, who had the ability & skills to spring surprises from harmless looking positions. The game can be termed as the most brilliant game of 2025 so far.
Let us learn the intricacies of the game now.
Anish Giri (2728) (White) – Aravindh Chithambaram (2729) (Black)
Prague International Chess Festival 202 Prague (7), 05.03.2025
1.d4 [3] d5 [15] 2.c4 [4] e6 [11] 3.Nc3 [5] Be7 [13] 4.cxd5 [23] exd5 [8] 5.Bf4 [3] Nf6 [14]
6.e3 [21] Bf5 [41] 7.Nf3 [1:48] c6 [2:51] 8.Nh4 [2:55] Bg4 [6:37] 9.Qc2 [1:26] Nbd7 [13:25]
10.h3 [4:44] Be6 [4:15] 11.Nf3 [4:08]
White has a slight positional advantage. Black’s pieces are slightly awkward. Instead of trying to find better squares for the pieces, Black comes with a novel idea of making the optimal use of pieces in his own way.
11…Ne4N [1:21] Black plays ambitiously, choosing an aggressive plan. 12.Bd3 [3:42] f5 [35]
13.Bh2 [10:38]
Black’s decision to post a Knight in the centre at the cost of weakening the position had probably completely confused White as he took over ten minutes for this move.
13…0–0 [1:22] 14.0–0 [35] Kh8 [3:52] 15.Ne2 [2:45] a5 [4:23]
By playing one move on the King side and one on the Queen side, like ‘Alexander The Great’, Black continues to confuse White more and more. White remains guessing about Black’s long term plan of aggression on the King side.
16.Ne5?! [2:00]
White wants to drive away the strong BN on ‘e4’ but it was more consistent to go ahead with the plan of Minority Attack on the Queen side with 16.Rab1!?. However, it is easier said than done as one can’t ignore the attack against one’s King side and with a Black Knight on ‘e4’, White may never feel safe.
16…Nxe5! [9:52] 17.Bxe5 [10] Bf6! [3:39] 18.f3 [2:26] Nd6 [3:10]
19.g4? [13:13]
This serious weakening of the King side turns out to be a grave error, as we will see from the next part of the game. White judges the position superficially, in the hypermodern way. The weakening of White’s King side is much more serious than Black, as we will soon find out.
19.Bh2 would have been met with 19…Re8!
19.b3! Nf7 20.Bg3 would have succeeded in maintaining a slight advantage while keeping the position safe.
19…Qe7! [20:08]
A great Pawn sacrifice after a long 20 minutes of contemplation. Accepting the sacrifice would have driven White in serious difficulties. For example,
20.Bxd6? Qxd6 21.gxf5
(21.Bxf5 Bxf5 22.gxf5 Rae8 23.e4 dxe4 24.fxe4 Bxd4+ 25.Kg2 Be5 26.Rad1 Qf6!)
21…Bg8! 22.Kg2 a4! and now
- a) Rac1 Qe7 24.e4 dxe4 Or
- b) Qc3 Qe7 24.e4 dxe4 25.fxe4 c5! 26.Qxc5
(26.e5?? cxd4 27.exf6 Bd5+!; 26.Qa3 b5!)
26…Qxc5 27.dxc5 Bxb2. Or
- c) a3 Qe7 24.e4 dxe4 25.fxe4 Bb3 26.Qc3 c5! 27.Qxc5 Qxc5 28.dxc5 Bxb2. Or
- d) e4 dxe4 24.fxe4 Bxd4 25.Nxd4 Qxd4 26.Qc3 Rad8 27.Rfd1 Rxf5!
The game went
20.Ng3?! [9:56] 20…g6! [8:00] 21.Rae1? [10:10]
21.Bf4! Nf7 22.Kg2 g5! 23.Be5 Nxe5 24.dxe5 Bxe5 25.Nxf5 Bxf5 26.Bxf5 Bd6 27.Qc3+ Qg7 would have maintained equilibrium.
21…Bxe5! [4:10] 22.dxe5 [3] Nf7 [6] 23.f4 [11:20] Qh4!? [15]
23…fxg4! would have led to a clear advantage. For example, 24.hxg4 Bxg4 25.Kg2 Nxe5! 26.Qc3 d4! 27.Qxd4
(27.exd4? Qh4!)
27…Rfd8! 28.Qxe5+ Qxe5 29.fxe5 Rxd3 when White loses Pawns after Pawns.
However, Black refrained from accepting the sacrifice as he was already preparing for an unexpected combinative attack against White’s King side.
24.Kg2!? [6:06]
White is hoping for 24…fxg4? 25.hxg4 Qxg4 26.Rh1! Bd7
(26…Bf5 27.Bxf5 gxf5 28.Rh3 Rg8 29.Reh1 Rg7 30.Kf2!)
27.e6! when White gets a very strong attack against Black’s weakened King position. 27…Ne5 (27…Qxe6 is bad on account of 28.Bxg6 h6 29.Rh4. Or if 27…Bxe6?? then 28.Be2 Bf5 29.Qc3+)
28.Rhf1! Nxd3 29.Qxd3 Bxe6 30.Kf2 Bd7 31.Rh1 Kg8 32.Qd4 Rf7 33.Ne2 Re8 34.Reg1 Qe6 35.Rh6! when White has decisive threats.
However, the move played – 24.Kg2– allows a stunning finish. Had White foreseen what was coming ahead, he would have chosen the quiet 24.Qh2 fxg4 25.hxg4 Qxh2+ 26.Kxh2 though Black has a winning position after winning a Pawn with 26…Bxg4.
24…Ng5!! [2:57]
Lightning from clear sky! Black breaks through White’s seemingly strong Pawn wall. The move reminds me of the move 22….Nf7–g5! from the famous Kotov-Panov game, 1936!, wherein the same Knight move turned out to be the winning one. However, in that game, the Knight move did not involve any sacrifice & was quite a natural one. Here, it is a stunning sacrifice, leading to complete destruction of White’s King side.
25.Rh1 [2:39]
25.fxg5 was impossible due to 25…fxg4 26.hxg4 Bxg4 with rapid finish.
25…d4! [9]
Clearing ‘d5’ for the Bishop.
26.fxg5 [6:53] dxe3 [19] 27.gxf5?! [2:25]
27.Rxe3 f4 was a bit better, keeping the King side closed as far as possible.
27…gxf5 [13] 28.Rxe3 [2:42] f4 [43] 29.Rf3 [10] fxg3 [20] 30.Be4 [4] Rxf3 [4:20] 31.Bxf3 [4] Rf8! [17]
32.Qe4 [1:47] Rf4 [2:56] 33.Qd3 [35] Rxf3 [27] 34.Qd8+ [11]
34.Kxf3 loses to 34….Bd5+ 35.Ke2 Bc4!
34…Kg7 [13] 35.Kxf3 [26]
35.Qe7+ is no better. 35…. Rf7 36.Qxe6 Qe4+ 37.Kxg3 Qf4+ 38.Kg2 Qf2#
35…Bd5+ [6] 36.Ke3 [4] Qe4+ [11] 37.Kd2 [1] Qf4+ [23] 38.Kc2 [28] Qf5+ [19] 39.Kd2 [30] Bxh1 [23]
White resigned. 0–1
