An accidental misclick from professional chess player Jan-Krzysztof Duda was so disastrous that he instantly withdrew from a tournament with a $1.5m prize pool:
His opponent Nodirbek Abdusattorov was shocked by this decision and can be seen shaking his head in disbelief as he removed his headphones. They’d drawn their initial two games, with the third being the decider to see who’d progress to the quarter-finals. The misplaced move was just Duda’s fifth of the game.
Rather than physically moving the chess pieces, the Esports World Cup taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is all completed through mouse and keyboard, although the players still sit across from one another.
Some people on social media questioned why Duda didn’t continue, while others said that the error was so disastrous that there was no coming back from it at this elite level of chess. Others questioned if this would have happened if they were using physical pieces rather than a mouse and keyboard.
Duda still took home $65,000 for his efforts
Despite this mistake, Duda still took home $65,000 for his efforts. Remarking on the misclick, he said he won’t forget it for the rest of his life, stoically saying: “It was a very unfortunate moment. It was fatal. What to do — it is a part of online chess. It happens.”
