Fabi might be the unluckiest player in recent times:
List of tournaments from 2025-26 he almost won:
Freestyle Weissenhaus:
Great start. Beats Gukesh and Sindarov, now faces Vincent in the final. Loses due to getting a somewhat worse opening position, with very little potential to win and making only a few mistakes.
Norway chess 2025:
Has a great tournament, leads after defeating Wei yi in round 7. Manages to lose two completely drawn endgames in classical in a row. Finishes just 0.5 pts below 1st.
World blitz 2025:
Plays best blitz tournament of his life and ends up 2nd in the group stage with 14/19. Gets paired against Magnus due to Magnus clutching to 3rd place last minute after being behind the whole tournament. If it was literally anyone else at least there wouldve been a chance and Fabi had good odds of winning, seen by the quality of his games.
Freestyle world championship 2026:
In game 3 plays very well and outplays magnus, getting a completely winning position with no chance for Magnus. But the win is difficult to find (a lot of chances to draw and no clear mating net). Blunders and loses under time pressure.
Candidates 2026:
This might be the saddest of all. He got off to an incredible start, being joint leader until his loss against Sindarov which in a normal candidates wouldve just been a slight hiccup. This one was close at some point, having a 3.5/5 and only 1 pt behind which is a good score. But Sindarov keeps winning and Fabi just completely chokes against Hikaru and Anish. He also got better positions against Pragg and Sindarov, but both end in a draw. This might be the most disappointing tournament ive seen yet.
There are a bunch of other minor ones, like superbet chess classic romania and poland, amongst others. But im just including major ones rn.
It feels like Fabi is just programmed to not get 1st place. Ive never seen someone who so consistently fails to win tournaments despite playing well, maybe only Arjun is better.
Man, I really hope for a comeback in the upcoming Sinquefield cup or smth. #games