The 6th edition of the Prague International Chess Festival will be held from 27 February to 7 March at the four-star Don Giovanni Hotel Prague, Czech Republic. The event features Masters, Challengers, Futures tournaments, Karel Janecek Open Chess Tournament, and a variety of side events.
The Masters event gathers 10 super grandmasters who will compete in 9 rounds (round-robin system), and the field is headlined by GM Vincent Keymer and GM Praggnanandhaa. The participants are:
- GM Vincent Keymer (Germany, 2743),
- GM Praggnanandhaa (India, 2743),
- GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (India, 2742),
- GM Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran, 2740),
- GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan, 2727),
- GM Gukesh D (India, 2725),
- GM Richard Rapport (Romania, 2717),
- GM David Navara (Czech Republic, 2679),
- GM Mateusz Bartel (Poland, 2657), and
- GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Czech Republic, 2632).
The Challengers tournament will be played simultaneously and the winner of the event will secure his seat in the next edition of the Masters event. A mixture of young talents and experienced top grandmasters, the line-up includes:
- GM Anton Korobov (Ukraine, 2663),
- GM Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 2627),
- GM Erwin L’Ami (Netherlands, 2627),
- GM Jaime Santos Latasa (Spain, 2615),
- GM Maxim Rodshtein (Israel, 2580),
- IM Ediz Gurel (Turkey, 2560),
- IM Vaishali Rameshbabu (India, 2481),
- IM Richard Stalmach (Czech Republic, 2433),
- IM Stepan Hrbek (Czech Republic, 2426), and
- IM Vaclav Finek (Czech Republic, 2416).
The Karel Janecek Chess Open will kick off on February 28th as a 9-round swiss tournament. The event features a total prize fund of 100.000 CZK (~4.000 EUR) with 30.000 CZK (~1.200 EUR) reserved for the Winner of the event. Moreover, the Winner of the Karel Janecek Open will qualify for the Challengers tournament next year. 180 players already registered for the event, and the current top-seeds are GM Sethuraman S.P. (India, 2594), GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Greece, 2547), and GM Tomas Polak (Czech Republic, 2525). The current starting list of players can be found below.
Detailed information about the events can be found on the official webpage.
Karel Janecek Chess Open 2024 – Starting list of players (as of 26.01.2024):
| Title | Name | FED | ELO | |
| 1 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | IND | 2594 |
| 2 | GM | Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis | GRE | 2547 |
| 3 | GM | Polak Tomas | CZE | 2525 |
| 4 | GM | Vetoshko Volodymyr | UKR | 2505 |
| 5 | GM | Prraneeth Vuppala | IND | 2500 |
| 6 | GM | Sadzikowski Daniel | POL | 2497 |
| 7 | GM | Quintiliano Renato R. | BRA | 2493 |
| 8 | GM | Barbosa Evandro Amorim | BRA | 2491 |
| 9 | IM | Csonka Balazs | HUN | 2479 |
| 10 | IM | Stoyanov Tsvetan | BUL | 2465 |
| 11 | IM | Siddharth Jagadeesh | SGP | 2457 |
| 12 | GM | Simacek Pavel | CZE | 2456 |
| 13 | IM | Kilic Eray | TUR | 2452 |
| 14 | IM | Isik Alparslan | TUR | 2452 |
| 15 | IM | Sofronie Iulian | ROU | 2422 |
| 16 | GM | Neverov Valeriy | UKR | 2406 |
| 17 | IM | Song Yuxin | CHN | 2405 |
| 18 | IM | Nguyen Piotr | POL | 2404 |
| 19 | IM | Harikrishnan.A.Ra | IND | 2400 |
| 20 | GM | Neuman Petr | CZE | 2398 |
| 21 | FM | Dauner Benedikt | GER | 2383 |
| 22 | FM | Smolik Jachym | CZE | 2378 |
| 23 | FM | Svanda Ondrej | CZE | 2369 |
| 24 | FM | Abdilkhair Abilmansur | KAZ | 2357 |
| 25 | FM | Adarsh Tripathi | IND | 2356 |
| 26 | Roubalik Jakub | CZE | 2351 | |
| 27 | Mikes Jan | CZE | 2348 | |
| 28 | GM | Stopa Jacek | POL | 2344 |
| 29 | FM | Hollan Martin | CZE | 2336 |
| 30 | FM | Chinguun Sumiya | MGL | 2319 |
| 31 | CM | Tan Jun Ying | MAS | 2315 |
| 32 | CM | Lohia Sohum | ENG | 2315 |
| 33 | FM | Jares Michal | CZE | 2314 |
| 34 | FM | Daakshin Arun | IND | 2309 |
| 35 | FM | Babula Vlastimil | CZE | 2308 |
| 36 | FM | Simek Petr | CZE | 2298 |
| 37 | FM | Rudolf Michal | POL | 2295 |
| 38 | CM | Assylov Miras | KAZ | 2288 |
| 39 | FM | Cieslak Patryk | POL | 2284 |
| 40 | WIM | Balabayeva Xeniya | KAZ | 2282 |
| 41 | FM | Serrano Salvador Eduardo | CZE | 2277 |
| 42 | FM | Sorm Daniel | CZE | 2274 |
| 43 | IM | Strebkovs Andrejs | LAT | 2273 |
| 44 | FM | Hauchamps Maxime | BEL | 2267 |
| 45 | FM | Miszler Levente | HUN | 2265 |
| 46 | CM | Deveci Huseyin Said | TUR | 2250 |
| 47 | Bednar Marcel | CZE | 2249 | |
| 48 | FM | Real Thibault | BEL | 2242 |
| 49 | CM | Mifsud Timothy | MLT | 2234 |
| 50 | Bravetti Antonio | ITA | 2227 | |
| 51 | IM | Welling Gerard | NED | 2224 |
| 52 | FM | Nemitz Alfred | GER | 2223 |
| 53 | FM | Kuru Atilla | TUR | 2220 |
| 54 | CM | Krivenko Dion | EST | 2216 |
| 55 | FM | Karamsetty Jeevan | USA | 2211 |
| 56 | FM | Chkhaidze Nikoloz | GEO | 2209 |
| 57 | Lever Erwan | FRA | 2199 | |
| 58 | Garcia Martinez Marcos | ESP | 2187 | |
| 59 | Koffeman Timo | NED | 2186 | |
| 60 | WIM | Sahithi Varshini M | IND | 2173 |
| 61 | WIM | Kanakova Natalie | CZE | 2169 |
| 62 | Aadit Bhatia | IND | 2169 | |
| 63 | FM | Sahin Ozgun | TUR | 2168 |
| 64 | WGM | Rodshtein Tereza | CZE | 2157 |
| 65 | FM | Burnett Andrew | SCO | 2156 |
| 66 | Lau Lut Yin Luke | HKG | 2142 | |
| 67 | Mueller Magnus | GER | 2137 | |
| 68 | FM | Vanek Tomas | CZE | 2132 |
| 69 | FM | Hajiyev Kanan | AZE | 2129 |
| 70 | WFM | Dwilewicz Katarzyna | POL | 2129 |
| 71 | Knitl Anton | GER | 2120 | |
| 72 | Trapl Dalibor | CZE | 2108 | |
| 73 | FM | Taborsky Rostislav | CZE | 2100 |
| 74 | Grimault Nathan | FRA | 2098 | |
| 75 | Van den Bersselaar Jeroen | NED | 2082 | |
| 76 | FM | Lacrosse Marc | BEL | 2078 |
| 77 | WFM | Vrbova Niki | SVK | 2075 |
| 78 | Wecker Martin | GER | 2075 | |
| 79 | Shamian Artur | UKR | 2074 | |
| 80 | CM | Vincenti Leonardo | ITA | 2071 |
| 81 | Zaragoza Alanis Miguel Arnulfo | MEX | 2069 | |
| 82 | Panjer Sidney | GER | 2069 | |
| 83 | Orzechowski Jacek | POL | 2059 | |
| 84 | Duke Michael | SCO | 2054 | |
| 85 | FM | Hrbolka Ladislav | CZE | 2052 |
| 86 | Rajnys Vladimir | CZE | 2049 | |
| 87 | WIM | Sultanbek Zeinep | KAZ | 2040 |
| 88 | Hollstein Frank, Dr. | GER | 2039 | |
| 89 | Brzezina Piotr | POL | 2024 | |
| 90 | FM | Valenta Vit Vaclav | CZE | 2021 |
| 91 | Samaridis Konstantinos | GRE | 2014 | |
| 92 | WFM | Shivika Rohilla | IND | 2003 |
| 93 | Ribreau Herve | FRA | 2002 | |
| 94 | Tolhuizen Ludo | NED | 1993 | |
| 95 | Kurek Pavel | CZE | 1991 | |
| 96 | Bunk Wolfgang | GER | 1986 | |
| 97 | Kondys Piotr | POL | 1982 | |
| 98 | Phatak Aanjaneya | IND | 1974 | |
| 99 | FM | Bigabylov Zhuban | KAZ | 1972 |
| 100 | Pousada Garcia Victor Daniel | ESP | 1965 | |
| 101 | Goh Choon Keng Philip | SGP | 1964 | |
| 102 | Hurtak Otto | CZE | 1958 | |
| 103 | FM | Pacl Vaclav | CZE | 1950 |
| 104 | Cziko Eduard-Carol | ROU | 1946 | |
| 105 | Chua Chee Sian Sebastien | MAS | 1941 | |
| 106 | Mokrzanowski Andrzej | POL | 1941 | |
| 107 | Lilliehook Victor | SWE | 1934 | |
| 108 | Sofronie Vladimir | ROU | 1927 | |
| 109 | Plesek Jiri | CZE | 1926 | |
| 110 | Velikov Nikola | BUL | 1919 | |
| 111 | Filindash Nikita | CZE | 1916 | |
| 112 | Kaewpitakkun Pantham | NOR | 1916 | |
| 113 | Randziak Martin | SVK | 1914 | |
| 114 | Dome Michal | CZE | 1912 | |
| 115 | Rutten Bram | NED | 1911 | |
| 116 | Holliman Bob | USA | 1909 | |
| 117 | Green Per | SWE | 1906 | |
| 118 | Vrchotka Josef | CZE | 1897 | |
| 119 | Tripathi Pratyush | SWE | 1894 | |
| 120 | Heyl Thomas | GER | 1891 | |
| 121 | Oglaza Dawid | POL | 1888 | |
| 122 | Srimathi R | IND | 1882 | |
| 123 | Vavruska Antonin | CZE | 1878 | |
| 124 | Topencik Bruno | CZE | 1874 | |
| 125 | WFM | Grapsa Georgia | GRE | 1874 |
| 126 | Pejrimovska Viola Ruby | CZE | 1868 | |
| 127 | Veny Jaume | CZE | 1861 | |
| 128 | Roch Florian | FRA | 1854 | |
| 129 | Rychlik Michal | POL | 1852 | |
| 130 | Vasiliadis Theodoros | GRE | 1845 | |
| 131 | Reichel Lukasz | POL | 1837 | |
| 132 | Babula Matej | CZE | 1836 | |
| 133 | Prieto Alberto | USA | 1834 | |
| 134 | CM | Popov Roman | CZE | 1831 |
| 135 | Stary Simon | CZE | 1830 | |
| 136 | Migalko Dmitriy | CZE | 1813 | |
| 137 | Lien Sebastian | NOR | 1811 | |
| 138 | Pejrimovsky Tadeas Rubel | CZE | 1805 | |
| 139 | IM | Chubar Vladimir | UKR | 1804 |
| 140 | Bohlin Jan | SWE | 1790 | |
| 141 | Yagiz Bora | TUR | 1785 | |
| 142 | Svizensky Lubos | CZE | 1785 | |
| 143 | Zuziak Petr | CZE | 1783 | |
| 144 | Stefan Iulia-Cristiana | ROU | 1772 | |
| 145 | Tan Jimmy | SGP | 1764 | |
| 146 | Tesar Jakub | CZE | 1758 | |
| 147 | De Martino Daniele | FRA | 1718 | |
| 148 | WCM | Milner Romi | USA | 1710 |
| 149 | Mikhno Artem | CZE | 1699 | |
| 150 | Mrazek Adam | CZE | 1692 | |
| 151 | Kadonas Kestutis | LTU | 1684 | |
| 152 | Yin Milo | FRA | 1683 | |
| 153 | Markina Sofiia | CZE | 1680 | |
| 154 | Bara Jan | CZE | 1670 | |
| 155 | Lajdamik Kinga | POL | 1649 | |
| 156 | Dranka Jowita | POL | 1645 | |
| 157 | Hu Zhening | CHN | 1641 | |
| 158 | Mathisen Pal Strande | NOR | 1639 | |
| 159 | Kelemen Csaba Herkules | HUN | 1624 | |
| 160 | Chernyy Andrey | CZE | 1608 | |
| 161 | Pogorelskiy Boris | CZE | 1604 | |
| 162 | Bondarenko Vova | CZE | 1602 | |
| 163 | Kolar Edvard | CZE | 1561 | |
| 164 | Berikkyzy Alanna | KAZ | 1545 | |
| 165 | Agarwal Amaya | ENG | 1517 | |
| 166 | Agarwal Anay | ENG | 1490 | |
| 167 | Sboev Kirill | CZE | 1468 | |
| 168 | Tomasic Ivan | CRO | 1462 | |
| 169 | Sander Antonin | CZE | 1452 | |
| 170 | Pinheiro Moraes Diego | ESP | 1375 | |
| 171 | Havlik David | CZE | 1373 | |
| 172 | Rubin Andrej | CZE | 1370 | |
| 173 | Bukovskij Dmitri | CZE | 1355 | |
| 174 | Orman Attila | AZE | 1337 | |
| 175 | Schwartz Michael | RSA | 1240 | |
| 176 | Nguyen Nhat Minh Thu | CZE | 1232 | |
| 177 | Poliakov Mykhailo | CZE | ||
| 178 | Muenz Werner | GER | ||
| 179 | Balzerowski Patrick | GER | ||
| 180 | Blome Simon | GER |
