Duda Completes Strong Week With Freestyle Friday Victory

GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda won Freestyle Friday in a comeback on May 1, winning in the final round to scratch out a win on tiebreaks over GM Jose Martinez. The feat marks the second time Duda has won both Titled Tuesday and Freestyle Friday in the same week, which he also achieved February 18-21, 2025. Duda also became the second player to win the tournament twice since the Championship series began on February 20, 2026, matching IM Renato Terry.

Duda had to work for it, was he was not one of the only three players who got off to a 4/4 start this week: Martinez, GM Matthias Bluebaum, and IM Sahib Singh (who finished in third place on April 17). With three more players half a point behind, none of them Duda either, the only decisive game on the top three boards of round five was Martinez’s win over Singh to reach 5/5.

In the next round, against the only player on 4.5/5, Bluebaum, Martinez defended his perfect score and extended his lead to a full point. Duda and Tsydypov were among the players to reach 5/6.

Martinez’s next matchup was a handful, Black against Duda, and Duda’s 8.f6! and 9.Rxf6!! were too much to handle—if Black recaptured the rook, White’s plan of Qh6, Nh5, and Qg7# would be utterly non-forcing, yet unstoppable.

Tsydypov also moved into a share of the lead at this point after defeating GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and his reward was facing Duda in round eight, while Martinez took on Terry. After some swings in both games, they both ended in draws, allowing GM Hans Niemann to enter a tie for first after he defeated FM Artin Ashraf for his third straight win.

Round nine did not resolve much yet, as the top three boards all saw rather quick knockout wins for three of the four tied players. Martinez needed just 21 moves to checkmate GM Mitrabha Guha and reach 7.5 points, and Tsydypov wasn’t far behind toppling Niemann on move 27, followed by Duda checkmating Terry on move 31. GM Aravindh Chithambaram defeated Singh in a longer game to become the only player on 7/9.

In round 10, however, Martinez took the sole lead back, defeating Tsydypov, while Duda spent a lot of his draw with Aravindh barely hanging on.

In the final round, a draw with White against Niemann would be enough for Martinez to clinch, assuming Duda didn’t win against IM Marco Materia. Unfortunately for Martinez, he missed the threat behind Niemann’s 25…Qe7, and found himself down a pawn with less than no compensation. But before Niemann could convert, Duda won his game.

It now seemed as if Duda was on his way to an outright victory, but Martinez managed to escape with a draw by repetition on move 71. In the end, Duda’s tiebreaks came out a point ahead.

Martinez took the runner-up spot while Tsydypov, the only player on 8.5 points, took third. Niemann’s tiebreaks beat out GM Jeffery Xiong for fourth place, and GM Anna Muzychuk won the women’s prize for the second straight week. GM Pranav Venkatesh and Muzychuk continue to top the leaderboards in the Freestyle Friday Championship standings, while Duda moved into fourth.

(Full final standings.)