The traditional Čez Chess Trophy is under way in Prague, and this year David Navara's opponent is Peter Svidler. The Russian grandmaster and World Cup 2011 winner took the lead with a win in the second game on Thursday. Two more games will be played; Friday is a rest day.

The poster of the Čez Chess Trophy with Svidler reading a book titled 'Cricket' and Navara one with 'Logic'! | Photos by Anežka Kružíková, courtesy of the Prague Chess Society

Every year Czech Republic's strongest grandmaster David Navara is given the opportunity to gain more experience by playing a match against a world class player. Former opponents include Vassily Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik and Judit Polgar, and this year Navara faces the winner of the World Cup 2011 and 6-times Russian champion Peter Svidler.

Whereas rapid chess was preferred in previous years, this time the match consists of four classical games with the FIDE time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment from move 1. As always, the sponsor is Čez Group, a conglomerate of companies involved in the electricity generation, distribution, and trade.

Venue is the Malostranská beseda in central Prague, close to the famous Charles Bridge. The match is part of a bigger festival which includes lectures given by Slovakian GM Ján Markoš, Israreli IM Yochanan Afek and Einar S. Einarsson. There's also a philatelist exposition, and on Friday both Navara and Svidler give simuls.

The first game, played on Wednesday, ended in a draw after 35 moves. Starting with 1.Nf3 g6, the players reached the main line of the Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind. Navara kept an opening advantage, but he might have missed something when he went for a tactical operation which led to complete equality.

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David Navara couldn't maintain his opening advantage in game 1

Svidler won a good game on Thursday. Navara invited his opponent to the Berlin Endgame, but the Russian GM went for the more quiet 4.d3 and later exchanged his Spanish bishop for the knight on c6. Navara couldn't find a good plan and soon encountered problems. Maybe there was a better defence for Black in the rook ending.

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Svidler took the lead in game 2

Čez Chess Trophy 2012 | Score

The match is held in the Malostranská beseda, a late Renaissance building in the Malé Strany
area which used to be the Town Hall but is used as a club and concert hall nowadays

At the opening ceremony, organizer Pavel Matocha holds two stamps, created
especially for the match, which were used for the colour drawing for game 1

The stamp used for post cards:

The philatelist exposition of Břetislav Modr, who presents two famous Olympiads - Prague 1931 and Buenos Aires 1939. There are 40 sheets of stamps, including one of the most precious chess stamps: the special post stamp on the occasion of the Buenos Aires 1939 Olympiad, of which only 9 known copies exist.

The lecture by GM Ján Markoš, on how to use chess programs properly