Duda Wins Freestyle Friday As Bortnyk Continues To Place High
GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda scored 9.5 points and took his second-ever Freestyle Friday on March 6, after his first came more than a year ago. He finished ahead of GM Martyn Kravtsiv, IM Almas Rakhmatullaev, and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, who finished second through fourth place on tiebreaks with 8.5 points each. GM Anna Muzychuk finished 19th and won the women's prize. Bortnyk and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk remain in the top positions on the leaderboard for the Freestyle Friday Championship.
While no one reached 6/6 after Duda and GM Sina Movahed drew each other in the sixth round, Duda won every other game through nine rounds to be nearly perfect by that point. After the draw with Movahed, Duda was able to stay atop the standings with a win over GM Magnus Carlsen.
Second-place Kravstiv also scored a win against the Freestyle World Champion, which happened in the very next round. Kravstiv won a piece on move nine with a surprise trapping of Carlsen's queen, after which Carlsen withdrew from today's tournament.
Duda, who also won in round eight after GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov shockingly hung his knight in the endgame, took the sole tournament lead with that result. Duda then extended his lead to a full point coming out of the break in the ninth round, with a second queen and a win over IM Eray Kilic.
Duda went on to coast to the finish line with draws against Kravtsiv and Bortnyk in the last two rounds. None of the 10 players who had at least 6.5 points through nine rounds won both of their final games, so Duda was able to maintain his full point lead despite the draws. In fact, he led by a full point after the 10th round as well, as Kravtsiv and GM Conrad Holt were the only players on 7.5/9, but Holt lost in the round to Bortnyk.
All top four finishers made draws in the final round, leaving Duda in perfect shape.
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 4 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2784 | 9.5 | 68.5 | |
| 2 | 15 | GM | @Cayse | Martyn Kravtsiv | 2643 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 3 | 19 | IM | @AlmasRakhmatullaev | Almas Rakhmatullaev | 2598 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2753 | 8.5 | 60 | |
| 5 | 18 | IM | @scarabee43 | Marco Materia | 2608 | 8 | 70 | |
| 6 | 14 | GM | @dretch | Conrad Holt | 2625 | 8 | 67 | |
| 7 | 1 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2771 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 8 | 11 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2652 | 8 | 64 | |
| 9 | 20 | FM | @ilqar_74 | Rustam Rustamov | 2596 | 7.5 | 73 | |
| 10 | 2 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 2771 | 7.5 | 72.5 | |
| 11 | 12 | GM | @moro182 | Luca Moroni Jr | 2643 | 7.5 | 66.5 | |
| 12 | 6 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2703 | 7.5 | 66 | |
| 13 | 13 | IM | @DonkyDonkyDonkey | Eray Kilic | 2648 | 7.5 | 61.5 | |
| 14 | 43 | CM | @neymardasilvasantos_11 | Alper Tezcan | 2414 | 7.5 | 54 | |
| 15 | 25 | IM | @PiliposyanRobertChess | Robert Piliposyan | 2546 | 7 | 66 | |
| 16 | 9 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2643 | 7 | 63.5 | |
| 17 | 24 | FM | @temus_galaktionov | Artem Galaktionov | 2527 | 7 | 63 | |
| 18 | 22 | GM | @eljanov | Pavel Eljanov | 2548 | 7 | 60 | |
| 19 | 34 | GM | @Anna_Muzychuk | Anna Muzychuk | 2449 | 7 | 58.5 | |
| 20 | 21 | IM | @FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 2575 | 6.5 | 69.5 | |
| 21 | 5 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 2703 | 6.5 | 66 | |
| 22 | 47 | FM | @RoseAtwell | Rose Atwell | 2384 | 6.5 | 65 | |
| 23 | 62 | WIM | @amylazy | Phuong Hanh Luong | 2332 | 6.5 | 60.5 | |
| 24 | 8 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 2677 | 6.5 | 58.5 | |
| 25 | 75 | FM | @allblacksGOAT | Levi Fogo | 2270 | 6.5 | 53.5 |
Prizes: Duda $400, Kravtsiv $250, Rakhmatullaev $150, Bortnyk $100, Muzychuk $100.
Freestyle Friday is Chess.com's weekly tournament dedicated to Freestyle Chess for titled players. The tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time.
Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.
