Richard Rapport took first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Belgrade last weekend. The Hungarian grandmaster is now almost assured of a place in the Candidates tournament in Madrid later this year, which will determine a challenger for the World Championship. Only a very unlikely outcome at the final Grand Prix event (which begins in Berlin next week) would see him knocked out of the cycle.
Rapport is popular with fans for his rich imagination and penchant for offbeat openings. In the past, that sometimes made for erratic results, but a newfound consistency has propelled him into the world’s top ten. The diagram position shows the critical moment from the final match. Rapport could repeat moves with 30 Qe3, leading to a draw by repetition in light of the previous moves. Instead he used up nearly all his time and chose the ambitious 30 Qe5.
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