Between Mars and Jupiter

Richárd Rapport – 韦奕 (Wéi Yì)
7th Chess World Cup; tie-break game 1; Tbilisi, September 8, 2017
6k1/8/4K1p1/5p1p/5P1P/3R2P1/1b6/8 w - - 17 59

Position after 58. ... Bc3-b2

The young Chinese prodigy 韦奕 (Wéi Yì) was another excellent victim of the tie-break system, even if Richárd Rapport, Hungary’s youngest ever Grandmaster, may well be regarded as a talent of equal stature with him. In the first of the two tie-break games, Rapport played with great brilliancy and soon gained the Exchange, showing an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of technique in finally converting his material advantage into a "book” win: 59. g4! hxg4. Or 59. ... fxg4 60. f5! gxf5 61. Kxf5 Kf7 62. Rd7+ Kf8 63. Kg6 g3 64. Rd8+ Ke7 65. Rd2 Ba3 66. Kxh5 with a theoretical win. 60. h5! Kg7 61. Rd7+ Kh6 62. hxg6 Kxg6 63. Rf7 Bc1 64. Rxf5 Kh6 65. Ke5 1 : 0.