Estonian chess grandmaster Ottomar Ladva headlined the $25,000 Onyx High Roller Series Main Event at the Merit Royal Diamond in Cyprus, turning a stacked 207‑entry field into a $1,150,000 first‑place score. The high‑roller showdown generated a massive multi‑million‑dollar prize pool, and by the time the dust settled at the final table it was Ladva who emerged with all the chips, adding a marquee title and a seven‑figure cash to his rapidly growing live résumé.
Right behind him was Australian high‑stakes regular Geoffrey Mooney, who navigated the minefield to a strong runner‑up finish worth $717,000, while Belarusian crusher Mikalai Vaskaboinikau locked up $490,000 in third place. The international flavor of the final table continued with Kirill Shcherbakov from the Russian Federation banking $355,000 for fourth, and Finnish legend Patrik Antonius adding $270,000 to his career earnings in fifth after entering the last day as one of the players to beat; Austria’s Matthias Lipp picked up $200,000 for sixth, Bulgaria’s Boris Kolev claimed $160,000 in seventh, Daniil Kiselev from the Russian Federation earned $124,000 in eighth, and Austria’s Jessica Teusl secured $100,000 for ninth.
From a financial standpoint, this result is staggering: even as a chess grandmaster, Ladva would likely never touch a single payday of over a million dollars in open or elite chess events unless he somehow reached a World Championship match, an incredibly narrow path reserved for a tiny handful of players in each generation. Poker has already given him that life‑changing score, and when you place that $1.15 million victory against the typical earning ceiling in top‑level chess, it underlines just how big this win really is for him, both as a competitor and as a professional looking to maximize the value of his talent.
