Richard Rapport Wins 11th Danzhou Tournament

On Wednesday GM Richard Rapport won the 11th Danzhou Tournament. The Hungarian grandmaster was the only player to remain undefeated and finished half a point ahead of GM Ding Liren.

Rapport won 80,000 RMB ($12,249 or 10,103 euros) with his victory. The total prize fund was 400,000 RMB ($61,241 or 50,516 euros).

After a decade of over-the-board editions, this year's tournament was played online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The players played on Chess.com with a time control of 15 minutes and a 10-second increment.

In our coverage of the first seven rounds, we saw that Ding had been leading the event. The Chinese player had lost to only Rapport in the first round, and that game was almost the deciding factor for the whole tournament.

In the last round, Rapport played a quick draw while being half a point ahead of Ding. If the Chinese GM had beaten GM Veselin Topalov, Rapport would have won the tournament based on their mutual result. As it went, this tiebreak wasn't needed.

11th Danzhou Tournament | Final Standings

Ding and Rapport's second encounter, in round seven, was a relatively quick but very interesting draw that saw the pawn push g2-g4 as early as move four. Like in their first game, Ding didn't manage to convert a winning position:

GM Anish Giri had lost three games on Saturday but recovered well after the rest day. The Dutchman scored 2.5/3 on Monday to get back to a plus-one score.

He was involved in a few very interesting games. Take his black game with GM Wei Yi, who sharpened the position even further with (also here!) g2-g4, after starting with an English Attack. A spectacular tactical sequence ended with something quite rare: a knight promotion.

In the penultimate round, there was the following draw between Ding and Giri. Even in the London System, things can get pretty crazy:

The tournament winner won a nice game against GM Yu Yangyi in round 10. The Chinese player lost too much time with a knight maneuver and allowed the typical d4-d5 breakthrough for White's isolated queen's pawn. When that happens, White's activity can be overwhelming. Rapport did miss some quicker wins:

The tournament saw the return of Topalov to the tournament arena for the first time since January of this year. He couldn't shake off the rustiness and finished in last place, partly due to a very sad mouse slip in round 12. If it had been possible, Rapport probably would have agreed to a takeback for this one:

All games rounds 8-14

See also:

• Ding Liren Leads Danzhou As Hou Yifan Wins Women's Tournament