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Eberechi Eze has followed up his starring role in Crystal Palace’s FA Cup semi-final win with another personal success: first place in an online celebrity chess tournament.
The 26-year-old England international, who scored as Palace beat Villa 3-0 at Wembley last month, won Chess.com’s four-day, 12-player amateur PogChamps tournament, involving athletes and content creators.
Eze beat the American YouTuber Sapnap 2-0 in the final, livestreamed on Twitch, winning the $20,000 (£15,000) top prize. Chess.com said Eze “showed that he’s as good at defending as he is at attacking”, taking advantage of Sapnap who “missed a key attacking idea, which led to an unfortunate brain fart and piece blunder”.
Eze is a relative newcomer to chess, having been taught the game by his former Palace teammate Michael Olise. He told The Athletic in 2023 that Olise, now at Bayern Munich, had introduced him and his brother to the game at the club’s training ground. “That’s when I started studying the game, watching YouTube videos of the best chess openings, things like that. We’re always playing something at the training ground.”
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Palace will face Manchester City in the FA Cup final on 17 May, aiming to win the club’s first major trophy. The Football Association announced on Saturday that the game will kick-off at 4.30pm BST.
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