Duda Beats Dubov, Reaches Hamburg Grand Prix Final
Despite losing the first rapid game in Wednesday's tiebreak Jan-Krzysztof Duda knocked out Daniil Dubov to reach the final of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg. That starts on Friday.
It was an exciting semifinal tiebreak between two of today's most promising rising stars—especially in speed chess: Dubov, the reigning world rapid champion and Duda, the runner-up at the world blitz championship. It goes to show that both of them were invited to the 2020 Tata Steel Chess Masters.
Dubov got extremely close to victory as he won the first rapid game (with 25 minutes on the clock and 10 seconds increment), and reached a drawn rook endgame. Duda had to gamble there, and won.
The first encounter was also decided in the endgame. The Russian player outplayed his opponent with a more active king:
Duda had to win the next one as Black, and chose a typical opening for such situations: the Modern Defense. He needed to take risks, and closing the queenside led to a fight on two flanks where thing were initially going Dubov's way. After more adventures, Duda ended on top:
The first 10+10 game finished quickly and abruptly, as Dubov somewhat mysteriously offered a draw as early as move 16, just when an Exchange Slav started to become sharp:
Caissa was not thrilled, and decided to support Duda in the next game. A Torre Attack reached a Carlsbad structure in which Dubov made a few surprising decisions:
With his win, Duda qualified for the final of the Hamburg Grand Prix, where he'll meet Alexander Grischuk, again in two standard games and possibly a tiebreak. Play starts on Friday.
The Hamburg Grand Prix games start each day at 15:00 CET, which is 9 a.m. Eastern and 6 a.m. Pacific. You can follow them here as part of our live portal.
Previous reports:
- Hamburg Grand Prix: Grischuk Eliminates Vachier-Lagrave
- Hamburg FIDE Grand Prix Semifinals Start Peacefully
- Duda, Dubov, Grischuk, MVL In Hamburg Grand Prix Semis
- Hamburg GP Round 2: Vachier-Lagrave Starts With Win
- Hamburg FIDE Grand Prix: Dubov Knocks Out Radjabov
- 4 Winners At Hamburg FIDE Grand Prix 1st Day
- FIDE Grand Prix Resumes Today; Grand Chess Tour Tomorrow
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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