and midfielder Eberechi Eze has swapped sports and banked £15,000 after winning an online chess tournament. Oliver Glasner's outfit are preparing for the run-in and a final, while their king moved his queen to E3 and claimed a huge cash prize to beat out a host of rivals.

Eze won Chess.com's 12-player celebrity PogChamps 6, which took place this week, fresh off a Wembley goal that booked Palace's place in the May 17 final. He led the Eagles to a 3-0 win over , which set up a showpiece clash against . But Eze is already a champion elsewhere, while livestreaming the event on Friday evening.

Having come through the round-robin stage, Eze received a bye into the semi-finals where he defeated American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik. He won 2-0 and set up a Friday final with YouTuber Sapnap.

Eze, playing under the username 'Ebz Eze', again won 2-0 after setting a brutal trap for his opponent. The 26-year-old moved his rook to the top of the online board, forcing Sapnap into check and needing to bring his king up.

There Eze was waiting, moving his queen to checkmate his opponent before shouting "Come on!" to his Twitch followers in celebration, earning £15k in the process.

Eze credited his love of chess to his former Palace team-mate Michael Olise, who now stars for alongside .

"I didn't start learning chess until Michael came in," Eze told in 2023. "It was him and my brother who nudged me to learn how to play and face them, so that's when I started studying the game, watching YouTube videos of the best chess openings, things like that. We are always playing something at the training ground."

Eze did not drop a single game in the tournament that was marred by controversy. Video game streamer DrLupo was kicked out of the tournament for cheating during his match.

"Had a ton of fun playing, but have decided to drop out of the event to help maintain competitive integrity for those involved, as well as the tourney organizers," he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

"Having the main stream up on my left monitor over the course of the day today to watch other games being played led to me getting move information I shouldn't have had for a game. That's on me and no one else. That's my f*** up. I apologize - you'd think I would know better, but here we are."

Chess.com weighed in on the matter, confirming that DrLupo had been removed from the tournament "for a fair play violation that occurred during today's Pogchamps event."