[4] Artur Szklener, director of the Chopin Institute, announced that three pianists had identical scores, leading to very long debates among the jury.

The letter "M" was drawn with a lottery machine by Piotr Gliński, the Polish Minister of Culture, at a press conference a week earlier.

[13] Polish Radio commentators described Szymon Nehring's playing as "extremely mature", completely different than the previous competition, where he had been a finalist.

[14] Jed Distler from Gramophone noted that Georgijs Osokins' performance was "strikingly individual", with an "epic sense of time scale" akin to Emil Gilels.

[16] On the second day, the performance of Talon Smith of the United States was unanimously praised by the Polish Radio, and he was described as a "very musical pianist with a great imagination".

[22] Distler described 17-year-old Yifan Hou as having "power, personality, style, technique, communicative immediacy and natural musicality", noting the "shocking" impact of his "compact, dramatic and kinetically fervent" performance of the first Ballade.

[25] The most praised participants of Day 6 were Kyohei Sorita of Japan, with a "well-structured program", and 17-year-old Hao Rao from China, who possessed "genuinely sincere emotionality".

[27] For Distler, Tomoharu Ushida provided the day's "most pleasant surprise", giving a "masterclass in horizontal clarity and the spacing of notes in time".

[28] On Day 8, 17-year-old Russian-Armenian pianist Eva Gevorgyan roused interest, Andrzej Sułek from the Polish Radio remarking: "She is growing into a very important figure in this competition.

"[29] On Day 9, Polish Radio commentators highlighted Nikolay Khozyainov's "unusually well-thought-out and intricately constructed repertoire" that he managed to "realize on stage one hundred percent".

Marcin Majchrowski of the Polish Radio remarked that he could not hide his emotions after Liu's performance, and that one could feel the "unimaginable tension and silence of listening to something special in the concert hall of the National Philharmonic".

Światczyńska remarked that he "is of a completely non-competitive type, not falling within the bounds of objective assessment", the question being whether his performance went "beyond the limits of good taste".

[12] Artur Szklener, director of the Chopin Institute, explained that "the substantive argument was that the participants ranked 10th, 11th and 12th very were close in terms of points.

After checking the organizational possibilities with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the jury came to the conclusion that the best solution would be to allow an increased number of 12 pianists.

[39] Światczyńska highlighted the "extremely different artistic personalities", noting that the jury's "range of tastes and criteria" was quite wide this year.

[41] John Allison, writing for the competition daily Chopin Courier, praised Pacholec's "elegantly poised playing", yet noted that his performance "got weighted down", particularly in the slow movement.

Przemysław Psikuta of the Polish Radio noted that Rao, like Pacholec before him, seemed to play in a more classical, traditional way, "physical elements dominating over poetry".

[42] In Distler's view, Sorita demonstrated "an altogether higher level of pianistic cultivation" with his "variegated turns of phrase, subtle transitions and wider dynamic range".

[42] Distler was captivated by Armellini's "warm and soaring tone, natural musicality, spontaneity and unalloyed joy in just being at the keyboard", noting that she "truly listened to her fellow musicians", though the Rondo's coda "didn't sparkle so brightly as expected".

[44] Krzysztof Stefański, writing for the Chopin Courier, found praise for Bui's "warm, round tone" and "impressionist hues above the clarity of his arpeggio".

[45] Distler criticized Bui's playing as being too "uniform, machine-like", "ploughing through Chopin's bravura writing like the proverbial horse with blinders".

Światczyńska liked his sound and his "ability to operate within wide planes", but criticized his "manneristic pathos and affectation" that "contradict Chopin's expression".

[45] Distler found praise for Gadjiev's performance: "He illuminated the opening Maestoso movement's salient points by executing decorative passages in tempo, while demarcating melodies with discreet rubato and sophisticated accentuation.

Gadjiev's seamless legato and multi-leveled dynamic control transformed the Larghetto into an aria where the piano's hammers seemed to have replaced by lungs.

[45] Distler remarked that García' seemed "held back on a leash" compared to his "impetuous, risk-taking solo performances" in the earlier stages of the competition, calling it "lovely by any standard" but with too little adventurousness to rival Gadjiev's "penetrating interpretation".

[46] In contrast, three of five music critics for the Polish music magazine Ruch Muzyczny called García's the best concerto performer: Szymon Atys called him his favorite pianist of the competition, Anna Chęćka highlighted his "surprisingly fresh and seductive vision" of the concerto, and Dariusz Marciniszyn remarked that García "enchanted" him completely, bringing forth "hidden melodic and harmonic dependencies" in the Rondo.

[45] For Distler, Gevorgyan was a "performance of eloquence, nobility and substance", evoking memories of "notable Russian luminaries like Emil Gilels and Bella Davidovich".

Światczyńska admired his composure and ability to focus, though feeling a certain lack of "poetic expression and color differentiation"[48] Allison called his performance "straightforward", with "impressively fleet passage work", but also noting that he went "under the surface, into the realms of that uniquely Polish spirit of żal".

Allison praised Liu's performance for "holding poetry and virtuosity in wonderful balance", the "dreaminess of the Romance" sustaining "right to the dying last note".

[50] Stefański called Liu the "undisputed favorite of critics and the audience", remarking: "He is a complete pianist – he has excellent technique, and he uses it to conjure up the most fascinating timbres on the Fazioli piano.