Polish no. 1 Jan-Krzysztof Duda is the shock winner of the Oslo Esports Cup after his last round victory over Eric Hansen proved enough to claim the title when Magnus Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa crashed to defeat. Both leaders at the start of the day lost two games, with Magnus falling to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov while Anish Giri took down Praggnanandhaa. Liem Le could still have taken the title ahead of Duda, but fell just short of the 3 points he needed when he failed to beat Jorden van Foreest in rapid chess.
You can replay all the games from the Oslo Esports Cup using the selector below.
And here’s the live commentary from Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev, including a pre-show with Tania, Judit Polgar, Maurice Ashley and Sagar Shah…
…and from David Howell, Jovanka Houska, Kaja Snare and Simon Williams in Oslo.
The main action on the final day of the Oslo Esports Cup was over fast, and almost no-one could have predicted how it would go!
We were expecting a 2-horse race, but the horses, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and 16-year-old Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa, not only lost, but lost in just three games and could have no complaints. Pragg never recovered from a crushing defeat with the white pieces to Anish Giri in the first game.
Magnus was facing a resurgent Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who had won his previous two matches, and was always on the defensive. He admitted, “I have no energy in my body whatsoever”, and his day was summed up by another strange blunder — and the way he reacted when he knew his hopes had gone.
That meant that the players a point behind the leaders were suddenly playing for the title, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda was in a hurry as he crushed Eric Hansen in the 1st game.
He then cruised to 2:0 before surviving a scare in the 3rd game to wrap up the match 2.5:0.5. It was a great result on a day when Jan-Krzysztof, who celebrated his 24th birthday during the tournament, also found out he’d drawn the no. 1 seed for the FIDE Candidates Tournament that starts in under two months.
All eyes turned to Liem Le, who could still win the trophy if he beat Jorden van Foreest in rapid chess, since he won the individual clash against Duda. Le came very close, but in the end he only overcame Jorden in tiebreaks, picking up 2 points, which wasn’t enough for 1st place but meant he did take clear 2nd!
Here are the final standings.
Come back later for more player quotes and analysis!
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