Jan-Krzysztof Duda is one of the strongest grandmasters in today’s chess, and it will be for a long time for sure. He is known for his incredible ability to play fast time controls and his performance as a prodigy.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who we will call Duda as everybody lovingly calls him, has an incredible chess career. This is characterized by hard work and dedication to the game, just like any other grandmaster.
As a prodigy, he didn’t advance super-fast as other exceptions like Firouzja or Nodirbek, but he has a great progression chart. He became the second-youngest chess grandmaster of his time, only behind Wei Yi.
And he is also one of the best polish players there are, and there have been in the past years. Duda can also be an example of perseverance, he has shown that he has improved slowly but surely and is very solid.
Today, he has grown into one of the top 20 best chess players in the world and is part of the elite. In this post, we will tell you how, and the path Duda has crossed to reach the place where he is now.
Table of Contents
Life and Duda’s progression in chess
Duda learned to play chess when he was just 5 years old, and he started to play with his friends and other people. It’s always nice when one starts his way in chess so young, that gives a lot of potentials.
When he was already 8 years old he participated in distinctive tournaments obtaining good results. When he was 8 he had an ELO rating, and after his first matches as an unrated player, he got 1834 as his starting rating.
That’s sure an amazing rating for an 8-year-old child, this gave him the opportunity to start playing in tournaments. Two years later, he participated in the world chess championship in the U10 category.
He won the world chess tournament when he was 10 for his category, which got him the FM title really early on. After this tournament, he had a plus 2000 rating for now, which is sure a really impressive achievement.
He kept it up playing in the championships for his category in 2010 and 2012, also obtaining good results. Finally, when he was 14 years old he got his IM title, and he had surpassed the 2400 rating.
As you can see, he has been progressing constantly over the years, and by this time he was the polish champion, and world chess champion U14. Finally, not much time passed, in 2013 he performed very well in the Europe Individual Championship.
So, in 2013 he got his grandmaster title after participating in such a tournament, with great success in the process. He became the second-youngest chess grandmaster at the moment, with a promising future.
Future that he demonstrates today, staying at the top 10 best players of the world, and the absolute best polish player.
After some time, in 2015, he started playing in really serious classic tournaments, like the Lago Savan Tournament. This was the Youth World Chess Championship, in which he got a shared first place. After this performance, he officially surpassed the 2700 rating barrier, becoming one of the youngest in getting to that point.
Jan-Krzysztof’s playstyle
If we can say something sure about Duda is that he likes to play safe, he won’t let slip away the advantage. He has played many important grandmasters recently, Magnus Carlsen included.
And you can sense some really quiet play, but not passive, is more like a very wise way to play chess. He likes to defend, meaning that he will get an advantage, and maintain that advantage at all costs.
This is the way he won in front of Magnus Carlsen, the game that you are about to see.
He is not the type of player that will get into the unclear tactical mess of position to get the advantage. He will try to build an advantage progressively and slowly, stroking his rival to the end and exhausting him.
That’s why we could state that he is a really positional player, of course, this does not mean he can’t attack.
Some interesting games by Duda
Conclusion
Duda is an example of dedication to the game and an admirable player who made their way to the top step by step. Taking a look at his game, and seeing how it has developed over the years, is something that can inspire any grandmaster.
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