GM David Navara just made it into the knockout phase of the Charity Cup as the Czech GM had the better tiebreak over GM Richard Rapport and GM Praggnanandhaa R., who won a brilliant game in the penultimate round. GM Le Quang Liem finished first in the preliminaries, three points ahead of GM Magnus Carlsen.

Two players who were still in the bottom half after three days managed to join the top eight anyway. Besides Navara, who won two games and lost one on the final day (which involved three wins for the black pieces!), the GM David Anton also did well—actually, even better. The Spanish GM won all three of his games and ended up finishing in fourth place.

Crucial was Anton’s win in the final round, at the same time a heart-breaking loss for teenage GM Praggnanandhaa, who spoiled a winning advantage to get himself eliminated from the tournament on tiebreak. Admittedly, this middlegame was tough to play:

The round before, Pragg had impressed the viewers with his brilliant 25.Rxa7 with which the Indian grandmaster beat GM Jorden van Foreest:

Navara desperately needed a win in that final round, and a Benoni vs. Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun did the trick for him. It was also an instructive game with the theme of opposite-colored bishop middlegames:

Charity Cup Preliminaries | Final Standings