Ranked 14th, he finished sixth in the 2004
European Individual Chess Championship in
Antalya scoring 7½ points (+5−2=5), including a draw against the eventual champion
Vassily Ivanchuk. This result qualified Navara for the
2005 FIDE World Cup, where he was eliminated by
Predrag Nikolić in the first round. In 2006, at the
37th Chess Olympiad he scored 8½ points from 12 games against world-class competition. The next year, Navara was invited for the first time into the
supertournament in
Wijk aan Zee, where he replaced
Alexander Morozevich. Navara, nicknamed
Navara Express by organizers, gained 6½ points in 13 games (+3−3=7), including wins against
Ruslan Ponomariov and
Magnus Carlsen (and draws with black pieces against
Vladimir Kramnik,
Viswanathan Anand and
Veselin Topalov), and finished in 7th place. In August 2007 Navara finished first in the Ordix Open, a rapid tournament part of the
Chess Classic Mainz festival, with a score of 9½/11 on progressive score tiebreak. The following month, he played in the
Czech Coal Carlsbad tournament in
Karlovy Vary, where he finished third, scoring half a point behind the winners, Ruslan Ponomariov and
Sergei Movsesian. Two months later, Navara participated in the
FIDE World Cup. He beat
Alexander Ivanov of US in the first round and was defeated by
Sergei Rublevsky in the second round after tie-breaks. In 2007–2008 Navara played in the "
Torneo di Capodanno" in
Reggio Emilia, Italy, scoring 3/8 (+1−3=4). He played in the
FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Baku in 2008, scoring 5½/13 (+2−4=7). At the 2011 Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Navara competed in the "B" group against other strong GMs like
Wesley So,
Lê Quang Liêm,
Luke McShane,
Vladislav Tkachiev,
Zahar Efimenko, and others. Navara tied for first place with Luke McShane by finishing with 8½/13. While McShane finished ahead on tie-breaks, both players received invitations to the top "A" group next year. Later in the same year, Navara also took part in the
FIDE World Cup; he lost to
Alexander Grischuk in the quarterfinals of the competition. The following year Navara won the individual gold medal on board two at the
40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul playing for the Czech team. He won the European
Blitz Chess Championship in 2014. In April 2018, he participated in the fifth edition of
Shamkir Chess, finishing tenth with a score of 2½/9 (+0−4=5). Navara won 9 national blitz chess championships, most recently the 2019 Czech Blitz Championship with a score of 14/15. Navara became European blitz chess champion for the second time in 2022, finishing with 17½/22 in
Katowice. He defended his European blitz title a year later in
Zagreb with 11½/13.
ČEZ Chess Trophy Since 2003, Navara has played several matches against top players in
Prague at the ČEZ Chess Trophy festival.
2024 controversy and Kramnik lawsuit In May 2024, Navara became a central figure in a major chess controversy initiated by former
world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik published a list on social media insinuating cheating in online
Titled Tuesday events, on which Navara was prominently featured. Shortly after, Navara announced that he would file a formal complaint with FIDE regarding Kramnik's behavior. He later clarified that his complaint was not based on a personal grievance alone, and mentioning that the complaint stated, "I am not sure whether he is accusing me", but on broader principles, citing four key objections: Kramnik's own recent fair-play violation, a pattern of unfounded public accusations by Kramnik, flawed statistical analysis, and the tweet's offensive framing. A year later, in a detailed blog post from May 2025, Navara recounted the full story and the severe psychological impact it had on him for which he had to seek professional help. He wrote that the public insinuation, compounded by FIDE's months-long silence, induced suicidal thoughts, and that there was a "real danger" he could have taken his own life in mid-June 2024, providing context by mentioning he had struggled with mental health issues since childhood. Navara further revealed that after receiving a formal response from FIDE in December 2024, which he found dismissive, he planned to commit suicide in mid-January 2025 but ultimately abandoned the idea. The dispute escalated further when Kramnik announced his intention to sue Navara for defamation, demanding a public retraction and apology. ==Notable games==