Richard Rapport won the 21st Sigeman & Co tournament in Malmö, Sweden on Tuesday. The 17-year-old Hungarian grandmaster tied for first place with Nils Grandelius and Nigel Short, but won on tiebreak: direct encounter (the results of the players in the same point group). In the last round Rapport defeated Jonny Hector, Grandelius beat Ivan Sokolov and Short drew with Hans Tikkanen.

Richard Rapport | Photos courtesy of Sigeman & Co

With two rounds to go, Nigel Short and Ivan Sokolov were topping the standings of the sparkling Sigeman & Co tournament. Loek van Wely and Nils Grandelius were trailing by half a point, and Richard Rapport had half a point less. Who would have thought that the Hungarian would eventually take the title?

In round 6, on Monday, Rapport reacted well to an interesting positional sacrifice by the ever-creative Emanuel Berg.

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Nils Grandelius held Loek van Wely to a draw in a Fianchetto Grünfeld and the top encounter between Ivan Sokolov and Nigel Short saw the same result. Sokolov had the better chances and even won a pawn, but it wasn't enough to win the game.

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And so Short and Sokolov were still tied for first, but now, with one round to go, Grandelius, Rapport and Van Wely were half a point behind.

On Tuesday everything was decided. Richard Rapport first defeated Jonny Hector with Black in a Velimirovic Attack, with remarkable ease we may add.

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Ivan Sokolov then lost his game to Nils Grandelius, and with it the fight for first place. Grandelius, on his turn, joined Rapport in virtual lead!

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Nigel Short could still win the tournament alone, if he managed to beat Hans Tikkan with White. The Swede, however, played solidly and held a slightly worse ending.

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This way even Van Wely could finish among the leaders, but for this he needed to beat Emanuel Berg with Black. The Dutchman managed to get a slight edge in a rook ending, but then his opponent showed how one should defend such positions: just give up your weak pawn immediately and place your rook and king as actively as possible!

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Dutch GMs Loek van Wely and Ivan Sokolov in the last round

Of the three winners, Richard Rapport had the best tiebreak: direct encounter.
The Hungarian scored 1.5/2 against Grandelius and Short. | Photo Calle Erlandsson

Sigeman & Co 2013 | Final standings

(This table was sorted automatically on SB)