ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2022

Lucky Eleven

[14.07.2022 00:00:00] - The Czech representative David Navara defeated the Indian Grandmaster S.L. Narayanan 7: 6 thanks to a win in the final Armageddon, and thus won the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2022. Before that, the last time was eleven years ago, when the eleven-time national champion David Navara won the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY festival. At that time in 2011, world champion Visvanathan Anand also visited Prague and the best Czech chess player defeated the Armenian Grandmaster Sergei Movsesyan 3.5-2.5. This year, Grandmaster Anand was invited to Prague again (he could not come due to a time collision with the Norway Chess tournament) and Navara won again. It will probably be best to invite the legend of Indian chess to Prague next year again...

Grandmaster Navara had to turn the match with the Kerala champion twice in a critical situation. First, in the main part (10 games were played in rapid chess) he lost 4: 2 after the first two days, and on the third day, he managed to equalize the score and push the duel to overtime in blitz chess. There he lost again and managed to settle again. It had to be decided only in the last armageddon game, which the Czech representative won and thus won the whole match.

"I am very happy to have had the opportunity to play this match. It was the first such opportunity for me," said Grandmaster Narayanan after the festival, adding that Grandmaster Navara used his vast experience and that he played the first game of the last day fantastically. "It was a really brilliant game," complimented S.L. Narayanan the Czech grandmaster on the 7th game match.


The trophy for the winner of ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2022 was given to David Navara by Indian Ambassador Hemant Kotalwar.

You can look through all the games zde.

And here you can look at the games with the video of the grandmasters from the game hall and with commentary by Grandmaster Štěpán Žilka.

Grandmaster Štěpán Žilka commented on all games of the match for the spectators in the Michna Palace and for those on the online broadcast. The festival also included a children's day prepared in cooperation with the Czech Chess Federation, chess lectures by GM Martin Petr and IM Petr Pisek, as well as an exhibition of chess posters by well-known Czech painters and artists such as Tomáš Císařovský, Boris Jirků, Tomáš Bím, Jiří Slíva, and Martin Velíšek.


ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2022 Festival Director Pavel Matocha with photographer Anežka Kružíková, who documented most of the chess events of the Prague Chess Society and Šach Mat s.r.o.

All photos by Anežka Kružíková from the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2022 festival can be viewed zde.

The chess festival, whose general partner was the ČEZ Group and which was further supported by EA Hotels, Čepro, Česká podnikatelská pojišťovna, and Motorpal, as well as Bessel Kok, ended with Grandmaster Narayanan's simultaneous match against 23 chess players. Among the rivals of the Indian Grand Master were the former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Member of Parliament Patrik Nacher, former Minister of the Interior Martin Pecina, former Minister of Health Roman Prymula, and President of the Defense Industry Association Jiří Hynek. In addition to them, there were also several businessmen and representatives of sponsors, journalists from Lidové noviny and the weekly Respekt, as well as five talented girls - after all, it´s the year of women's chess!
Grandmaster Narayanan took the simul very responsibly, played carefully, and won in all 23 games, although, for example, in a duel with lawyer Jiří Navrátil, he was outplayed in the opening and had to carefully defend and turn a significantly worse position. You can read a report from the simul by journalist Tomáš Már here.

Other media, including Czech Television in its main news program, also reported on ČEZ Chess Trophy 2022.

The closing ceremony of the whole festival took place at the Embassy of India and was attended by Ambassador Hemant Kotalwar and Consul Abhijit Chakraborty, who in the previous days also came to see the match at the Michna Palace, or President of Chess Chess Move and organizer of Chess Houseboat in Southwest India N.R. Anilkumar.

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