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Simon Knudsen and Benjamin Melde win Prague International Chess Festival 2025 Pair Blitz Open

by Shahid Ahmed - 02/04/2025

FM Simon Knudsen (GER) and Benjamin Melde (GER) scored 18/22 to win Prague International Chess Festival 2025 K Pair Blitz Open. The top seed, IM Vadim Cernov (ROU) and his son, FM Henrik Cernov (GER) also scored the same. However, the German duo won the tournament as their third tie-break score was better than the Cernovs. The team of father and son were placed second. The team of 12-year-old kids - Krzysztof Zawal (POL) and Stanislaw Korszanski (POL) scored 15/22, edged past the Malaysian duo of CM Looi Xin Hao and Sivanesan Subramanian on tie-breaks to finish thid. The top three prizes were CZK 2000, 1500 and 1000 each. Check out interview with the champion and a few exciting games. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Top two seeds interchange their places

Pair Blitz was one of the many side events of Prague International Chess Festival 2025. It is, as the name suggests, a fun event. Any two players could form a team and participate. Me and my colleague from ChessBase, FM Johannes Fischer decided to team up for the first time. Of course as his rating suggests, he is a much stronger player. It was evident in his play as he scored 8/11. I scored only 4.5/11 which was my lowest score in over a decade. Anyway, the most important part is we enjoyed teaming up and playing together. We faced the top four finishers. Lost against the eventual champion and runner-up, drew with the team of 12-year-olds and defeated the fourth place finisher team from Malaysia in the final round to finish sixth.

Top 4 (L to R): IM Vadim Cernov (ROU) and FM Henrik Cernov (GER) 18/22, 1st FM Simon Knudsen (GER) and Benjamin Melde (GER) 18/22, 3rd Krzysztof Zawal (POL) and Stanislaw Korszanski (POL) 15/22 and 4th Sivanesan Subramaniam (MAS) and CM Looi Xin Hao (MAS) 15/22
Interview with FM Simon Knudsen and Benjamin Melde | Video: ChessBase India
Interview with IM Vadim Cernov and FM Henrik Cernov | Video: ChessBase India

Players in action

My teammate was ChessBase's very own - FM Johannes Fischer (GER)

Considering how terrible I played (being slightly under the weather for no one's fault but my own) and Johannes single-handedly pulled our team together for the majority of the tournament, sixth is a great finish. Most importantly, I played a team (although it was a duo) event after more than a decade. After losing the eighth and ninth round, we managed to beat the only team of two IMs in the penultimate round. It was a nice feeling to make a comeback there. We also got a material prize of coffee.

We finished sixth, all thanks to Johannes for being the anchor of the team | Photo: Prajwal Bhat

For more K Pair Blitz photos, please here.

Video Gallery

FM Simon and Benjamin vs CM Looi and Sivanesan, Round 6 | Video: ChessBase India
Cernovs vs Slanec and Hinz, Round 1 | Video: ChessBase India
Final moments: Shahid Ahmed vs IM Viktor Dovzhenko, Round 10 | Video: ChessBase India
Final moments: FM Henrik Cernov vs FM Simon Knudsen, Round 3 | Video: ChessBase India

A total of 26 pairs which means 52 players including three IMs took part from eight countries across the world. The one-day eleven round K Pair Blitz Open tournament was organized by Novy Bor Chess Club at Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czechia on 5th March 2025. The time control of the event was 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings

Rk.SNo TeamGames  +   =   -  TB1  TB2  TB3 
12
Knudsen-Melde118211817,5130
21
Cernov-Cernov118211817,5129
313
Zawal-Korszanski116321515128
47
Looi-Sivanesan116321514,5127
54
Nguyen-Tham114521313117
63
Fischer-Shahid115331312,5129
75
Narr-Sulzbacher114521312,5123
815
Ejsymont-Popczynska114521312,5119

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

Prague Chess Festival: fbtwitter, instagram and youtube


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