FIDE World Cup 2021: Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda beats Russia's Sergey Karjakin in finals

Polish Grand Master Jan-Krzysztof emerged victorious in the FIDE Chess World Cup 2021 with a convincing win over Russia’s Sergey Karjakin. The 9th edition of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2021 was a single-elimination tournament. The two World Cup finalists qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022 and the rest of the final eight qualified for the FIDE Grand Prix 2022, except GM Magnus Carlsen. 

According to Chess.com, Duda finished the tournament unbeaten and took home, USD 88,000 for first place. Karjakin on the other hand, won USD 64,000 for his second position. Norway’s GM Magnus Carlsen also won his game for third place by defeating Russia’s GM Vladimir Fedoseev with a score of 2-0. Carlsen and Fedoseev also won prizes worth USD 48,000 and USD 40,000 respectively.

First-ever Women's Chess World Cup and 9th Men's Chess World Cup.

The first edition of the FIDE Women's Chess World Cup 2021 concluded at Russia's Sochi. Russia’s Alexandra Kosteniuk emerged victorious against fellow countrywoman Aleksandra Goryachkina. She won the inaugural female-only version of the Chess World Cup, after two tie-breakers - replicating how she won the Women's World Championship in 2008.

In an interview with FIDE, Kosteniuk said, "When you are young and you win you don’t really appreciate it that much, and when you become older, well at least in my case, every victory is like something unbelievable, because you start to appreciate these victories much more and, of course, as time goes by you think more often about retirement and all this stuff. These victories motivate you to go on, and I don’t know for how long, but of course I’m very happy.”

Meanwhile, GM Vladislav Artemiev will play against GM Wesley So and GM Levon Aronian against GM Le Quang Liem in the Chessable Masters 2021 semi-finals. Earlier in the quarter-final matches, GM Alireza Firouzja and GM Hikaru Nakamura were knocked out in an armageddon game against Artemiev. The Chessable Masters is an online rapid chess tournament. It is also the eighth event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and has a prize money worth USD 100,000.

(Image Source: GM_JKDuda/Twitter)