Vidit Gujrathi loses play-off to finish second in Prague chess tournament

Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi lost his play-off game to finish second in the Prague Chess Festival here.

After an exciting final round, five players, including Gujrathi, finished in tied top place with five points from nine rounds.

With five players ending up with five points, the two best players with tie-break scores faced off in a blitz to decide the champion. The 16-year old Alireza Firouzja of Iran showed his abilities, winning both the games to capture the title.

The ninth and final round saw some interesting clashes with Gujrathi, who needed a win to have a chance of winning the title outright, slipping to a defeat at the hands of top-seed Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland.

Gujrathi could not recover from a loss in round eight and went down on the final day to Duda on Friday.

The other key game to decide the title was between David Anton Guijjaro and Alireza Firouzja of Iran and a win for either player would have been enough to secure first place outright.

Anton missed his chances during time trouble and Firouzja got the upper hand in the endgame as the game ended in a draw.

P Harikrishna, the other Indian in the field, broke his sequence of draws by beating David Navara of Czech Republic to finish with 4.5 points and in seventh place.

Final Standings: 1. Alireza Firouzja; 2. Vidit Gujrathi; 3. Sam Shankland; 4. Jan-Krzysztof Dua; 5. David Anton Guijjaro; 6. Nikita Vitiugov; 7. P Harikrishna; 8. Markus Ragger; 9. David Navarra; 10. Nils Grandelius.

Results of Round 9: Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL) 5 beat Vidit Gujrathi (India) 5; P Harikrishna (India) 4.5 beat David Navara (CZE) 4; Alireza Firouzja (Iran) 5 drew with David Anton Guijjaro (ESP) 5; Markus Ragger (AUT) 4 drew with Nils Grandelius (SWE) 3; Nikita Vitiugov (RUS) 4.5 lost to Sam Shankland (USA) 5.