FIDE Grand Prix Tournament 2, Knockout Stage

 Semi-finals

Rapport went through to the final fairly easily, winning smoothly with white against Vachier-Lagrave, and then drawing the second game. The Giri-Andreikin match was much tighter, with Giri having multiple opportunities to win, but eventually losing the second tie-break game from a position in which he had been doing well.
 

Final

The first game of the final was a rather tame affair, as Andreikin chose a drawish variation with white. It later emerged that his family had arrived on a delayed flight, and he'd been up most of the night worrying about them. The second game was much more entertaining, with Rapport making the bold decision in a time-scramble to avoid a draw by repetition, and it proved to pay off, as he won shortly afterwards.

Overall Grand Prix standings

Rapport is now the leader in the clubhouse with 20 points from his two events. Given the way the event 3 draw has panned out (with Aronian and Nakamura in the same group), he can only fail to qualify for the Candidates in some very specific circumstances, involving Nakamura winning group A, and one of the players who got 7 points in their first event winning event 3 overall, after which tie-breaks would come into play.

Nobody else who has played both events has more than 7 points, and so at least one qualifier will come from the players playing in event 3. Andreikin has withdrawn for personal reasons, so the most likely qualifiers are Nakamura (who enters on 13 points), Aronian (who enters on 10), Vachier-Lagrave, Giri and Dominguez (who enter on 7).

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