Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Zero Chances
The 2025 Prague Chess Festival was a round-robin with 10 players that took place on February 26-March 7 in Prague, Czech Republic. The venue was the prestigious Don Giovanni Hotel. The tournament used a time control of 90 minutes (first 40 moves), plus 30 more minutes for the rest of the game and 30-second increment from move one.
American GM Sam Shankland, who was the unbeaten winner of the third edition of the Prague Masters in 2021, also took part. The rest of the pool included other international top and rising local Czech players.
In round 5 Shankland faced Chinese GM Wei Yi who had a disappointing start of the tournament. With a humble score of 0.5 points after three rounds, he was at the bottom of the table. Nevertheless he recovered in round 4 and 5 with two consecutive victories. After winning against Shankland with the black pieces, he said: “Of course, I felt very disappointed after losing twice, but I had to continue to play and fight for the win.”
According to commentator GM Peter Leko, the critical moment was Wei’s pawn sacrifice 12…e5. It surprised Shankland who, faced with the prospect of an early extra pawn, did not properly evaluate the consequences of the subsequent line. Overconfident, he quickly played the wrong 14.Qh4??. Suddenly the initiative fell into Wei’s hands who converted the advantage with precise and beautiful tactics. Only 27 moves needed Wei to finish the game. Shankland had absolutely no chances.
Below the game with Wei’s own comments:
Wei Yi played in Prague for the first time in his life finishing third with a score 5/9. The previous year he returned to top competition after finishing his studies in University and brilliantly won the 2024 Tata Steel Chess. His future plan is to become full-time chess professional. Although his start in 2025 has been slow, his goal is to compete for the world championship title: “I don’t think I had good a start of 2025 because in Wijk aan Zee I played so many drawn games [12 draws, one win], and in this tournament I started with two losses, but I still wanted to try and fight for the Candidates. But, of course, it’s not very easy.”
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