FIDE World Cup, Semi-Finals and Finals

 Jan-Krzysztof Duda was not a name on every chess player's lips before this week, but he's certainly made headlines now: after holding Carlsen to a 1-1 draw in standardplay games, he then won the second playoff game to reach the World Cup final and the Candidates. Meanwhile, Karjakin beat Fedoseev 1½-½ to become the other finalist and Candidate.

The final then also went Duda's way; he drew quickly with black before winning a nice game with white to wrap the event up. Carlsen, meanwhile, won the third-place playoff 2-0 with two crushing wins against Fedoseev.

The two finalists have rather contrasting histories when it comes to the Candidates: Karjakin has played in the event three times before, and won it once, getting into the 2016 match against Carlsen. Duda, on the other hand, is not only making his debut, he is making history as the first Poland-registered player to play in the event, Miguel Najdorf having  already transferred to Argentina when he made his Candidates debut.

(Note: this is partly an accident of history; had there been a Candidates' event in the early days of the World Championship, there would probably have been several Polish Candidates - Zukertort and Janowski both played in World Championship matches, and there were other Polish players who were elite players in their day, such as Rubinstein and Tartakower.)

 





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