FM (2008); IM (2012); Grandmaster (2013); World U10 Champion (2008); European U14 Champion (2012); Polish U18 Champion (2012); European Rapid Champion (2014); Polish Champion (2018).
Preamble
Jan-Krzysztof Duda was born in Krakow, Poland and learnt to play chess at the age of five.
Master norms
<International Master norms> Duda's gained his first IM norm in August 2011 at the 8th International Festival of Chess GM Tournament in Ostroda in Poland, a round robin event, where he scored 5.5/9, which was one point more than the minimum requirement for an IM norm. His 2nd IM norm came at the Polish Championship in February 2012 when he scored 4/9, the requisite score for the norm. In August 2012 he won his 3rd IM norm at the Olomouc Chess Summer 2012 - A1 where he scored 8.5/11, a full 2.5 points above the requisite amount for the IM norm, and a half point above the requisite for the GM norm, which he also acquired.
<Grandmaster norms> As mentioned above, Duda's first GM norm was at the Olomouc Summer event in 2012. His 2nd GM norm came at the First Saturday GM March 2013 where he scored 8/9, a point above the minimum requirement for the norm. His 3rd GM norm, a double, was gained at the 2013 European Championship where he scored the requisite 5.5/10. He thereby gained his GM title in 2013 at the age of 15 years and 21 days, becoming the second youngest GM in the world at the time after Wei Yi.
Championships
<Youth> He gained his FM title by winning the 2008 World U10 Championship that was held in Vung Tau, Vietnam. He placed 3rd with 8.5/11 in the World U12 Championship in 2010. In the 2011 European U14 Championship, he placed =2nd with 7/9 and in November 2011 he placed =4th (6th on tiebreak) in the U14 World Championship, losing the battle for first place in the last round by losing to the winner FM Kirill Alekseenko. Won the Polish U18 Championship 2012, a point clear of the field with 7.5/9 before going on to win the European U14 Championship of 2012. In November 2012, he placed =3rd at the World U18 Championship held in Maribor in Slovenia.
<Junior> He competed, aged 12, in the World Junior Championship (2010) scoring 6.5/13. In July he scored 9/9 in the Polish Junior League. He scored a solid 8.5/13 to place =8th in the World Junior Championship (2013). Placed =3rd (8th on tiebreak) with 8/11 in the World U18 Championship 2013. In October, he was =3rd at the World Junior Championship (2014) behind the winner Lu Shanglei and runner-up Wei Yi, and alongside Vladimir Fedoseev, ultimately placing 4th on tiebreak. In September 2015, Duda was runner-up to Mikhail Antipov in the World Junior Championship (2015). He had lead the tournament from rounds six until twelve, and coming into the final round, he drew his final game while Antipov won his game to level the point scores. Duda was relegated to second place on the narrowest of tiebreak margins.
<National> Duda he scored a solid 4/9 at the Polish Championship in 2012, bringing in his 2nd IM norm. In April 2013, he scored 5/9 in the Polish Championship, narrowly missing his 3rd GM norm. He placed 3rd in the 2014 Polish Championship.
<Continental> In May 2013, he earned his 3rd GM norm at the European Individual Championship (2013), earning his GM title in the process. He competed in the European Individual Championship (2014) and scored 7/11.
<World> Duda was one of the President's nominees to the World Cup (2013). There he played Vassily Ivanchuk in the first round, losing by 0.5-1.5 and exiting the tournament.
Standard Tournaments
<2010> 6.5/9 in the XXI International Chess Festival Cracovia 2010, Open A defeating both grandmasters he encountered, namely Ilmars Starostits and Vadim Shishkin.
<2011> The year started quietly but in the middle of the year, he hit a purple patch,scoring 8/9 in the Polish Junior League, 5.5/9 in the Miguel Najdorf International Chess Festival and especially in the 8th International Festival of Chess GM Tournament in Ostroda in August 2011, where he won his first IM norm by scoring 5.5/9 and placing =2nd behind the winner, Lithuanian GM Vidmantas Vaclovich Malisauskas, the only player to whom he dropped a game. He also picked up nearly 50 ELO for this result alone, and nearly 100 ELO for the September rating period, extending his rating lead by over 250 points ahead of the only other Polish U14 rated over 2000, Radoslaw Gajek.
<2012> In August, he won the Olomouc Chess Summer 2012 - A1 in the Czech Republic (and a GM norm). In December 2012-January 2013 he scored 6/9 at the 23rd International Chess Festival held in Cracow, Poland, maintaining rating parity.
<2013> In March 2013, he scored 8/9 at the 1st Saturday GM tournament, thereby picking up his 2nd GM norm.
<2014> The year started with Duda's inaugural participation in Tata. At the Tata Steel Challengers (2014), he placed =6th with 7/13 (+5 -4 =4) picking up a handful of rating points. In July he participated in the Miguel Najdorf International Festival Group A, scoring 6/9, half a point from the lead.
<2015> In July, he won the category 15 Lake Sevan round robin event with 6/9, half a point clear of outright second-placed David Anton Guijarro.
Team events
Strong results in the Czech and Polish Leagues temporarily pushed him to top ranking of his age group in the world although a subsequent stellar performance by Artemiev eclipsed him for the top ranking for July 2013. In May 2014 , he played for Poland in the Mitropa Cup, and in the following month he and his team played an Olympic training match with Hungary. He represented the Poland 2 team in the European Team Championship (2013). He also played board 2 for Poland in the European U18 Team Championship, winning team gold and individual silver, and board 1 for Poland at the 2014 Mitropa Cup. In the 2014-15 season, Duda played top board for the Hamburger SK club in the Bundesliga, his team placing 11th out of 16. He played for the TJ Tatran Litovel club in the Czech Extraliga from 2012-13 to 2014-15, helping his team to a bronze medal finish in the 2012-13 season when he played board 5, scoring an above rating result of 4/7. He played board 3 for Poland in the Chess Olympiad (2014), scoring an excellent 8.5/11, narrowly missing an individual medal.
Rapid and Blitz
He scored 4/7 in the 2010 European Rapid Championship. He rounded out 2014 with an excellent results at the European Blitz Championship, scoring 17/22 and placing 2nd behind Navara and 1st in the European Rapid Championship with 9.5/11.
At the World Blitz Championship (2018), Duda had an outstanding result, scoring 16.5/21. He finished just half a point behind the winner, world champion Magnus Carlsen, and two points ahead of Hikaru Nakamura, who finished in third place.
Rating
Duda's results in the World Junior Championship of 2015 lifted him into the top 100 for the first time. Duda's highest rating to date was 2758 on the December 2019 and January 2020 rating lists.
Article by chessbase about Duda's acquisition of the GM title: http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211...
Wikipedia article: Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Kibitzing
