GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda won Freestyle Friday on February 21, becoming the fifth player to win one in the first five weeks of the event. More notably, this victory comes on the heels of a win in the late Titled Tuesday on February 18, making Duda the first player to win both events in the same week. On Friday, he won on tiebreaks over GM Amin Tabatabaei out of a field of 360 players, catching up in the very last round.
Duda became the outright leader after seven perfect rounds. He only managed half a point in the next two rounds before winning his last two games to emerge on top anyway. The seventh round is where Duda and Tabatabaei matched up, and the Polish 26-year-old extended his perfect start with a victory. Once all the major pieces were captured and each side only had a knight and bishop left, Duda began to take control of the game almost immediately.
After Duda lost in the ninth round to GM Christopher Yoo, Tabatabaei tried to take permanent control of the tournament in the 10th round, beating Yoo himself, Tabatabaei’s third straight win.
That put the 24-year-old Iranian into the sole lead with just a round left, a half-point ahead of Yoo, Duda, and GM Minh Le. Playing for a draw isn’t something you can do very effectively in freestyle chess, not that that’s something Tabatabaei wanted to do anyway in a precarious tiebreak position.
And indeed, Tabatabaei’s 44-move draw by repetition against Le was just the opening Duda needed, defeating GM Vladimir Fedoseev to catch up with Tabatabaei.
Duda’s tiebreaks were indeed enough to win out over Tabatabaei, as Yoo missed his chance to also join the lead, falling in the final round to GM Hans Niemann. Niemann just missed the money with a fifth-place finish; instead, the remaining paying spots after Duda and Tabatabaei went to Le in third, this week’s other Titled Tuesday winner GM Matthias Bluebaum in fourth, and IM Meri Arabidze in 18th as the top-ranking woman who played.
February 21 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
| 1 | 9 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2859 | 9.5 | 75 | |
| 2 | 19 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 2658 | 9.5 | 71 | |
| 3 | 27 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2628 | 9 | 68.5 | |
| 4 | 28 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2606 | 9 | 66.5 | |
| 5 | 6 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 2834 | 9 | 64 | |
| 6 | 15 | GM | @Sargsyan_Shant | Shant Sargsyan | 2741 | 9 | 63 | |
| 7 | 30 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2593 | 8.5 | 77 | |
| 8 | 8 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 2827 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 9 | 43 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2560 | 8.5 | 69 | |
| 10 | 20 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2613 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 11 | 26 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2590 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 12 | 10 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2795 | 8.5 | 59 | |
| 13 | 277 | IM | @InigoDust | Beglar Jobava | 1649 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 14 | 12 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2779 | 8 | 70 | |
| 15 | 29 | GM | @ChessSharkz | Kayden Troff | 2573 | 8 | 70 | |
| 16 | 139 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 1957 | 8 | 67.5 | |
| 17 | 3 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 2858 | 8 | 67 | |
| 18 | 83 | IM | @Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 2149 | 8 | 64 | |
| 19 | 126 | FM | @puz2010 | Semyon Puzyrevsky | 1998 | 8 | 64 | |
| 20 | 76 | GM | @alexrustemov | Alexander Rustemov | 2166 | 8 | 61 |
(Full final standings.)
Prizes: Duda $400, Tabatabaei $250, Le $150, Bluebaum $100, Arabidze $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.