c/o Max Vitek, Contributing Writer

This week we will be looking at a game from the 2011 Groningen Chess Festival in which Richárd Rapport—a Hungarian-Romanian grandmaster known for his creative strategies and questionable, but tactically brilliant, maneuvers—handily defeated his opponent, Arthur Pijpers. In this game, Pijpers played a Benko gambit; an unusual opening, most likely an attempt to catch Rapport off guard. However, Rapport handled the opening with relative ease. 

After much play on the queenside, Rapport had a rook for a bishop and two pawns. He’d led Pijpers into a trap after playing e5, with black reacting with Bxe5. Rapport could play a move that, at first glance, looked like a massive mistake, but would lead to an insurmountable advantage regardless of black’s response. With this tactic, Rapport won the fourth round of the tournament. (White to move.)

Last Week’s Solution:

23… Nb3+! 24. axb3 Rc1+ 25. Ka2 Qb1+ 26. Ka3 Qa1+ 27. Kb4 a5+ 28. Qxa5 Qxa5#

The important part of last week’s puzzle was spotting the knight check and noticing how it opened the c-file for the black rook to come all the way to c1. After a series of checks using black’s rook, queen, and two pawns, black can force checkmate. In the game, Aleksandr Shimanov resigned after Nb3, giving Vidit Santosh Gujrathi the win.