Jan-Krzysztof Duda


Jan Krzysztof Duda is a Polish chess player. A prodigy, he achieved the title of grandmaster in 2013 at the age of 15 years and 21 days. Duda won the Polish championship in 2018.

Chess career

2008

In 2008, Duda won the World Youth Chess Championship in the under-10 category and as a result he was awarded the title of FIDE Master.

2012

In 2012, Duda won the Polish under-18 championship in Solina and the European Youth Chess Championship in the under-14 category in Prague. In the same year, he tied for first with Jan Krejčí in the Olomouc Chess Summer tournament and was awarded the title of International Master.

2013

In May 2013, Duda achieved his final norm required for the title of Grandmaster, in the European Individual Championship, at the age of 15 years and 21 days. This made him the second youngest grandmaster in the world at the time. Duda also thus became the second youngest Polish grandmaster ever, after Dariusz Świercz. In April 2013, he came first in the First Saturday GM tournament in Budapest. In August, Duda took part as a FIDE presidential nominee in the FIDE World Cup, where he was eliminated in the first round by Vassily Ivanchuk. In October, FIDE officially awarded him the title of Grandmaster.

2014

In August 2014, Duda played for the Polish team at the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway, scoring 8.5/11 on board three.
In December 2014, he won the European Rapid Chess Championship and took silver in the European Blitz Chess Championship, both held in Wrocław, Poland.

2015

In July 2015, Duda won the Lake Sevan round-robin tournament in Martuni, Armenia. In September 2015, he finished equal first with Mikhail Antipov in the World Junior Chess Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, and received a silver medal after tiebreaks.

2017

On 1 July 2017, Duda became the first Polish junior player to break the 2700 barrier in FIDE rating, achieving the highest ranking in his chess career so far. With a rating of 2707, he was the second highest ranked Polish player and 41st in the world at the time.

2018

In May 2018, Duda won the Polish Chess Championship with a score of 6½/9, a full point ahead of runner-up Kacper Piorun. He recorded victories over Piorun, Radosław Wojtaszek, Daniel Sadzikowski, and Aleksander Miśta. In July 2018, he became the No. 1 ranked Polish player and the No. 1 ranked junior in the world, outstripping Wojtaszek and Wei Yi, respectively.
In July 2018, Duda competed in the 46th Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, placing fourth with a score of 4/7.
During the 2018 Chess Olympiad held in Batumi, Georgia, he defeated Vassily Ivanchuk and drew against Levon Aronian, Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Sergey Karjakin, claiming fourth place overall with the Polish team. In 2018, Duda reached the semi-finals of the Speed Chess Championship after beating Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk, eventually losing to Wesley So.
In December 2018, Duda finished in second place in the World Blitz Chess Championship in Saint Petersburg, scoring 16½/21, half a point behind the winner Magnus Carlsen.

2019

In November, 2019, Duda participated in the Hamburg FIDE Grand Prix tournament, which is part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2020. The tournament was a 16-player event. On 13 November, Duda reached the finals losing to Alexander Grischuk during the tie-breaks.

2020

In January 2020, Duda participated in 2020 Tata Steel Chess Tournament and finished the tournament in 8th place with a score of 6½/13, which is the same score as former Chess World Champion Viswanathan Anand, and Alireza Firouzja.
In May, 2020, he achieved his first victory over the reigning Chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen by beating him in Round 7 of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Chess Challenge.

Personal life

Duda is a student of University School of Physical Education in Kraków. He enjoys listening to Beethoven, Mozart and Queen.