Greetings to all chess fans! GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov has been having a great year in 2026. The young Uzbek grandmaster has been racking up wins in tournaments. He was third place in the recent FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship last February. He won the prestigious TATA Steel Tournament in January and to add another feather to his cap, he just won the Prague International Chess Festival.
source: lichess.org
Tied for first in the last round against Dutch number two Jorden Van Foreest, he drew his game against Hans Niemann. Van Foreest was against Iranian grandmaster Parham Maghsoodloo.
He exchanged his Queen for a Parham's Rook and Knight but ended up in a losing position. Parham converted it to a win leading to Nodirbek winning the tournament.
Gukesh's Lone Win
World champion Gukesh struggled in the tournament. He only had five draws and three losses after eight rounds. In the last round he was against Spaniard grandmaster Anton Guijarro. The pressure must have been off at this point since he seemed more relaxed compared to prior rounds. Soon he had a commanding position against his opponent. Pressure on his opponent's King side combined with his connected f and g pawns was already winning. He soon converted this position for his first and only win in the tournament.
The Best Game in my Opinion
The best game I've seen in the tournament was the one played by David Navarra against Nodirbek Yakubboev. The fireworks started with an offer of Knight sacrifice on move 21.
Accepting the sacrifice with 21. ...gxf6 will lead to disaster after 22. Qg4+ Kh8 23. Qh4 winning. Black opted to capture the Knight with his Bishop.
The game continued with 21. ...Bxf6 22. exf6 Qd8 23. fxg7 Kxg7 24. Ng4 Ra8 25. Qe5+ f6 26. Qxe6 Bc8 27. Qe2 Qd6 28. Ne3 Bd7 29. d5 c5 30. Qxb5!
David offers his Queen. Of course After 30. ...Bxb5 31. Nf5+ will recover his material and leave White with a dangerous passed d pawn. So Black declined the Queen "sacrifice". 30. ...Nc2 31. Qc6!
What's more beautiful that offering to sacrifice the Queen and David did it twice! Either Bxc6 or Qxc6 losses. White will recover his material plus interest. Black has to decline and sheepishly retreat his own Queen. 31. ...Qe7 32. Qc7 Nxe3 33. d6 Qe6 34. Re1 Ra6 35. Rad1 Qg4 36. h3
White is trying to deflect Black's Queen away from the defense of the Bishop on d7. 36. ...Qa4 keeps the defense on the Bishop. 37. b3! and David continued to harass Black's Queen.
Black decided to is still a piece up so he decided to give up his Bishop and save his Knight on e3 instead. 37. ...Qxb3 38. Qxd7+ Rf7 39. Qxf7!
The third Queen sacrifice and this time Black has to accept. 39. ...Kxf7 40. d7 Nxg2 41. Re7!
One last beautiful move, forcing Black to take the Rook. After the exchanges Black will be left with his King in the open. Mate will soon follow.
It was a beautiful game starting with Nf6 sacrifice. David kept the initiative with his imaginative play offering his Queen thrice leading to mate.
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