Person of day   -  26 APRIL 2023

JAN-KRZYSZTOF DUDA

JAN-KRZYSZTOF DUDA

Jan-Krzysztof Duda was born on April 26th 1998 in a small Polish town called Wieliczka, near Krakow. 

Jan-Krzysztof grew up without a father, but his family members supported him in his pursuit of chess. Duda was often accompanied to competitions with his aunt Czeslava Grohot. Jan’s first trainers were Andrzej Irlik and master Lesek Ostrovskiy. 

As a child, he gave lots of cause for optimism. He became world champion among boys under 10 in 2008 and the European champion under 14 in 2012. At the age of 15, Duda became a grandmaster and was nominated by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to play at the 2013 World Cup, where he lost in the first round to Vassily Ivanchuk. 

Jan’s first appearance at the open championship of Poland took place in 2013 and the year after that, he came third. He has represented Poland at European championships and Olympiads since 2014, which became his breakthrough year- Duda became the European rapid champion and the runner-up in blitz. 

In 2015, the Polish grandmaster came second at the World Junior Championship, behind Mikhail Antipov. The year prior, he split 2nd-4th places in the same tournament with Wei Yi and Vladimir Fedoseev, coming fourth due to inferior tiebreak. 

Towards the end of 2016, Jan-Krzysztof Duda won in Barcelona, after which he played selectively- he qualified for the 2017 World Cup, performed excellently at several team tournaments in European leagues and his rating surpassed the 2700 mark.

In 2017, the Polish national team came third at the World Team Championship. Jan-Krzysztof played at the second board, behind Radoslaw Wojtaszek and won an individual bronze medal. The Poles qualified for the World Championship after coming seventh at the 2016 Olympiad, where Duda also performed well, winning his first five games. At the European team championship in 2017, the young Polish hero won another medal on his board. In 2018, he became his country’s champion and won second place at the World Blitz Championship, behind Magnus Carlsen. At the Speed Chess tournament hosted by Chess.com he made it to the semi-finals, after knocking out Grischuk and Karjakin. 

Jan-Krzysztof Duda graduated from the Academy of Physical Culture of Krakow and continues to cooperate with grandmaster Kamil Miton.

In 2019, the young Polish grandmaster made it to the fourth round of the World Cup and performed well at the FIDE Grand Prix. Jan-Krzysztof will play for the European team at the 2020 Online Nations Cup.