Prague International Chess Festival: History, Format, and Every Past Winner

In 2019, Prague added a new event to the FIDE classical calendar. Eight years later, it has produced a list of Masters champions that reads like a cross-section of international chess’s recent history: former world title contenders, emerging generational talents, local heroes, and at least one player who went on to become one of India’s most decorated grandmasters.

The Prague International Chess Festival Masters is now one of the reliable events of the early FIDE year, typically holding its rounds in late February and early March, slotted between the Tata Steel Chess in January and the spring supertournament season. This is its history.

Follow the 2026 Prague Masters live on Shatranj Live with real-time standings.

The Tournament’s Origins

The Prague International Chess Festival was founded in 2019, organized by the Czech Chess Federation and the Prague city chess community. The event was designed as a multi-section festival format: a Masters round-robin as the headline event, alongside Challengers and Futures sections, plus rapid and blitz open events.

The multi-section format is a feature that distinguishes Prague from single-section classical events. On any given tournament day, elite grandmasters in the Masters are playing at the same venue where Challengers-level grandmasters are competing, and junior players are in the Futures. This creates a chess environment that has drawn both competitive participants and a chess-attending public.

The venue has been the Hotel Don Giovanni in Prague, which has served as the regular home for the Masters since the event’s founding. Prague itself has a chess tradition that predates the modern FIDE era, and the city’s chess culture has provided a consistent audience for the annual event.

Format

The Masters event is a 10-player single round-robin. Each player faces every other player once, for nine rounds total. The time control is classical FIDE: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move 1.

The round-robin format means every result matters. There are no elimination brackets, no second chances if you lose early. A player who loses three games in the first five rounds faces an arithmetic problem: catching up in a round-robin is harder than it looks because every other player is also playing to win against the leader.

Tiebreaks, when needed, are resolved by Sonneborn-Berger score (performance against the strongest opponents), direct head-to-head results, and then playoff games.

Masters Winners: 2019-2025

2019: Nikita Vitiugov (Russia)

The inaugural Prague Masters was won by Russian grandmaster Nikita Vitiugov, who at the time of the 2019 edition was rated approximately 2720 and was one of Russia’s consistently strong classical players.

Vitiugov had been a regular presence in European supertournaments through the late 2000s and 2010s without breaking into the absolute world elite. His Prague 2019 win was a significant result in a field that announced the new festival’s ambition.

2019 Masters Winner: Nikita Vitiugov (Russia)

2020: Alireza Firouzja (France/Iran)

The second edition of Prague produced arguably its most consequential winner: Alireza Firouzja, then representing Iran and on the cusp of what would become one of the most talked-about rapid ascents in chess history.

Firouzja in 2020 was an 18-year-old rated approximately 2700, already showing the tactical sharpness and fearless playing style that would carry him to world number 2 within a few years. His Prague 2020 win was part of a stretch of results that established him as a genuine top-10 candidate.

Firouzja subsequently began representing France and in 2024 competed at the Candidates Tournament. His 2020 Prague win is a data point in a career that has remained in the conversation for World Championship candidacy.

2020 Masters Winner: Alireza Firouzja (France)

2021: Samuel Shankland (USA)

In 2021, American grandmaster Samuel Shankland won the Prague Masters. Shankland, a former US Chess Champion, is known for grinding endgame technique and precise positional play.

The 2021 win was part of Shankland’s consistent presence in the European supertournament circuit in this period. He is not typically the headliner in his fields by rating or reputation, which made the Prague win consistent with his profile of outperforming expectations in round-robin formats.

2021 Masters Winner: Samuel Shankland (USA)

2022: Pentala Harikrishna (India)

In 2022, Pentala Harikrishna won the Prague Masters for India. Harikrishna, one of India’s most experienced grandmasters and a former world junior champion, brought India’s first Prague Masters title to the scoreboard.

Harikrishna at the time of the 2022 win was rated approximately 2720 and had been a fixture in European chess for over a decade, playing out of Prague at periods and developing deep familiarity with the event’s format and venue.

The 2022 win is part of India’s quiet but consistent presence in Prague across the festival’s history, foreshadowing the more prominent Indian stories that would follow in 2025 and 2026.

2022 Masters Winner: Pentala Harikrishna (India)

2023: Ray Robson (USA)

In 2023, American grandmaster Ray Robson won the Prague Masters. Robson, a former US youth champion who became one of America’s strongest grandmasters over the 2010s and 2020s, won the title in a field where he was not the top seed.

Prague has a pattern of producing results where the highest-rated player does not win the tournament. The 2023 edition followed that pattern. Robson’s win was built on consistent points accumulation across the round-robin rather than a single defining win.

2023 Masters Winner: Ray Robson (USA)

2024: Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan)

In 2024, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan won the Prague Masters. Abdusattorov, the 2021 World Rapid Champion (the youngest ever at the time, at age 17), has been one of the most dangerous players in classical chess through 2023-2026.

The 2024 Prague win continued a pattern of Abdusattorov performing strongly at classical supertournaments despite his reputation being built in rapid chess. By 2024, his classical rating had climbed above 2750, placing him consistently in supertournament fields as one of the genuine title contenders.

Abdusattorov is back in Prague for the 2026 edition, currently sitting a half-point behind Van Foreest in the standings. A second Prague title would put him in a very short list of repeat winners.

2024 Masters Winner: Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan)

2025: Aravindh Chithambaram (India)

The 2025 Prague Masters was won by Aravindh Chithambaram of India, and it was one of the cleanest wins in the tournament’s history. Aravindh won with 6/9, undefeated across all nine rounds, by a full point.

Going into the 2025 edition, Aravindh was a respected Indian grandmaster but not the primary storyline. He won by not losing a single game in nine rounds, which in a 10-player classical round-robin is a measure of sustained focus and accuracy that few players sustain across an entire event.

The 2025 win pushed Aravindh’s rating toward 2749, placing him at world number 11 in the April 2025 FIDE list. It confirmed him as one of India’s genuine elite-level players alongside Gukesh and Pragg.

Aravindh is back in Prague for the 2026 edition, now one year removed from his title defense. In Round 6, he beat Gukesh, the World Champion, in the game that became the India story of the 2026 tournament.

2025 Masters Winner: Aravindh Chithambaram (India)

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Past Winners: Summary Table

Year	Winner	Country	Score
2019	Nikita Vitiugov	Russia	-
2020	Alireza Firouzja	France	-
2021	Samuel Shankland	USA	-
2022	Pentala Harikrishna	India	-
2023	Ray Robson	USA	-
2024	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Uzbekistan	-
2025	Aravindh Chithambaram	India	6/9
2026	TBD (Van Foreest leads)	-	-

Patterns in the Prague Masters

Eight editions of the tournament produce a few observable patterns:

Rating underdogs win regularly. Firouzja won in 2020 as a teenager. Shankland won in 2021 as a non-headliner. Aravindh won in 2025 as the second Indian in the field. Van Foreest leads in 2026 as the sixth seed. Prague does not consistently go to the highest-rated player.

India has won twice. Harikrishna in 2022 and Aravindh in 2025 have given India two of the seven completed Prague Masters titles. With Gukesh and Aravindh both in the 2026 field, India is well-represented in the event’s history and its present.

The field keeps improving. The 2026 edition is the strongest Masters field in the event’s history by average rating, including the reigning World Champion, a former rapid world champion, and multiple top-20 players. The tournament has built its reputation year by year.

Defending champions return. Abdusattorov won in 2024 and returned in 2026. Aravindh won in 2025 and returned in 2026. This creates continuity in the event’s narrative and a specific competitive interest in how past champions perform in subsequent editions.

The 2026 Edition: Still Being Decided

The 2026 Prague Masters is currently in progress. After seven rounds:

Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands): 4.5/7, leads
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan): 4/7
David Navara (Czech Republic): 4/7
Gukesh Dommaraju (India): last place

Two rounds remain: Round 8 on March 5 and Round 9 on March 6. The winner will be decided by the evening of March 6.

If Van Foreest wins, he becomes the event’s first Dutch winner. If Abdusattorov wins, he becomes the event’s first repeat champion. If Navara wins, the Czech Republic gets its first home title.

Follow the 2026 Prague Masters live standings on Shatranj Live, updated in real time as each game finishes.

The Prague International Chess Festival in Context

Prague sits in an interesting position in the FIDE classical calendar. It is not Tata Steel, which has decades of history and the world’s most prestigious classical field. It is not Norway Chess, which has Carlsen’s home-crowd presence. It is not the Candidates or the World Championship.

What it is: a reliable, high-quality early-year event that has demonstrated it can attract world-class fields, produce genuine chess stories, and repeat year after year with institutional consistency.

Eight years into the Prague International Chess Festival, that is a track record. The event has produced one winner who became world number 2 (Firouzja). It has been won by a reigning Indian national champion (Harikrishna), an undefeated Indian GM (Aravindh), and a rapid world champion (Abdusattorov). The 2026 edition could produce its first Dutch winner.

For the history of the Prague Masters in a single sentence: the highest-rated player rarely wins, the unexpected challenger often does, and India has been in the picture more than any other single country.

Follow Prague Chess Live

Official event information is available at the Prague Chess Festival official site.

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