Magnus Carlsen won the Chess.com Open. He lost the initial Grand Final match to Jan-Krzysztof Duda, got reset to a decider, then beat Duda in the final two-game set.
Duda played well enough to force that reset. The Polish grandmaster crushed Carlsen 2½–½ in the first match, doing it on his 28th birthday. For a moment, he had the world number one on the ropes.
But Carlsen is Carlsen. He regrouped and took the title in the climactic reset match. Both players qualified for the Esports World Cup from this event.
One detail stands out. Carlsen competed in the entire tournament using a tablet instead of a traditional board setup. He still won. That tells you everything about his current form and his comfort with any format the game throws at him.
This was a strong performance from a field of elite players, but the ending was never really in doubt once we hit the reset. Carlsen has a way of showing up when it matters most.