Prague International: Pragg and Aravindh begin with a draw in round one

Indian Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh Chithambram played out a draw in their opening round matches of the 2025 Prague International Chess Festival in Czechia on Wednesday.

Praggnandhaa settled for a draw in the rook-pawn edgame against the local favorite, David Navara, in the opening round, whereas Aravindh drew with another Czech player, Thai Dai Van Nguyen.

Second-seeded Praggnandhaa will not be very happy with this opening round result as he pushed very hard in this tiring 66-move draw, but Navara neglected all his attacking moves.

Pragg will now be aiming to bounce back in the next round against Ediz Gurel of Turkiye, who was beaten in the opening round by Sam Shankland of USA.

Tough start for Aravindh and Divya

On the other hand, rising star Aravindh battled hard and managed a fighting 76-move draw against Van Nguyen, who gained a good advantage from the middle game.

Aravindh now has another tough outing as he will face the current leader, Vincent Keymer of Germany, with the black pieces in the second round of the Masters category later today.

Meanwhile, Divya Deshmukh, the only female player in the challengers category, had a tough start to the tournament, losing to Ivan Salgado Lopez of Spain in the opening round.