Jan-Krzysztof Duda (born 1998, in Poland) is the winner of the chess FIDE World Cup in 2021. He "had an incredible run defeating GMs Sevian, Idani, Grischuk, Vidit, Carlsen, and Karjakin, becoming the first Pole to win the World Cup." [1] Duda remarkably won this top tournament without losing a single game.
Duda thereby qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, whose winner then plays the reigning world champion for the title.
In addition to defeating the longtime world champion Carlsen in this 2021 World Cup, Duda also ended Carlsen's amazing 125-game winning streak at classical chess, which began in the summer of 2018. Duda ended Carlsen's streak by using the white pieces to defeat him in October 2020.[2]
In defeating Carlsen in the semifinals of the 2021 World Cup, a Finnish commentator explained the play as follows:[3]
“ | Carlsen’s opening choice against the Sicilian 1 e4 c5 went wrong as 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ Bd7 4 Bxd7+ Qxd7 soon turned into a kind of French where Black had exchanged light-squared bishops and could infiltrate Carlsen’s dark squared pawn front. | ” |
“ | I grew up with Garry Kasparov’s book 'My Great Predecessors,' a bible for chess players, and I think that might be the reason why my intuition is so strong.[4] | ” |