A risky strategy from Rapport. This middlegame is already objectively better for Erdogmus. But he's banking on the simplified nature of the position to allow strong drawing chances...
Erdogmus goes in the strongest direction, with the reason for him standing better being the weak light squares in the center for Rapport.
A tense situation. If Rapport can just somehow solve the problem of his backward pawn, then he'll be comfortably equal and with a big likelihood of a draw.
Rapport needs to find some sort of a way of finishing his development.
Rapport manages to bring one of his queenside minor pieces into play, but the situation remains unpleasant for him as this knight is vulnerable to attack and is not so effective.
A clever idea from Rapport, giving up a pawn in order to solve his development problems.
It's not possible for Erdogmus to grab a second pawn, since doing so would leave his rook trapped.
Rapport should be quite happy with how things have been developing. At the end of the day, it's not going to be easy for Erdogmus to prove the advantage of his single pawn given that Rapport has the bishop pair.
Erdogmus with renewed chances!
Really nice play here, and Rapport might be regretting pushing his kingside pawn up so early. New lines of attack are about to open up, so Erdogmus can have a renewed sense of optimism here.
If Rapport can weather the storm here in terms of the attack, then his missing pawn may not matter so much. But that's a big if, since Erdogmus for now has more material and the stronger piece activity.
Erdogmus misses a clever tactical opportunity. He is looking to support his pawn push with the knight, but in fact he could have played that move on the previous turn!
Things are looking up again for Rapport, as he has coordinated well, with his king about to find safety in the middle of the board.
Rapport continues to defend well, but Erdogmus can pressure from here for a long time as he maintains his extra pawn and has well-placed pieces to boot.
Erdogmus might be about to grab a second pawn, though he has to be careful that his own central pawn doesn't fall at the end of the sequence.
Rapport cracks under the pressure. He needed to bring his king towards the center and then slide his rook to the open file on the right hand side to generate counterplay. Erdogmus with real winning chances now!
A clever move from Erdogmus, improving his rook and putting the kingside under pressure before snapping off the queenside pawn.
Rapport looking to win the central pawn, but the real danger for him is the 3 vs 1 pawn majority that Erdogmus has now secured on the queenside.
This one looks close to over, with Erdogmus about to level up the match and force the next set of rapid games!
Erdogmus has several ways to win here, but playing pawn takes pawn and going up two points in material seems the most straightforward.
A huge oversight from Erdogmus, as he allows Rapport a sequence of checks with his rook and bishop. The Hungarian grandmaster might still be able to save this one after all!
This is the point that Erdogmus must have missed. Now Rapport will keep the material at just one pawn deficit, which could make all the difference.
Sadly for Erdogmus, it's hard to make use of his extra pawn. Of note is the fact that even if he could somehow end up with rook + bishop vs rook, even that endgame is theoretically drawn.
To make matters worse for Erdogmus, the position is not especially challenging for Rapport to handle. All his moves are largely just waiting moves, shuffling the rook around while keeping his king close to his only pawn.
Still no progress for Erdogmus, as he finds himself down to seconds for each move.
Rapport just has to avoid overcomplicating matters with tricks like the one shown by the arrows. Exchanging bishops would lead to a losing endgame for him.
Nice play from Rapport, as he finds the perfect moment to trade down another set of pawns.
Still not trivial for Rapport, as he has to watch out for tactics around his pinned bishop.
Rapport looking to drop his rook back to the second rank, so that his king isn't tied down to the first rank.
Crunch time for Rapport, who can force a theoretically drawn endgame by playing bishop takes pawn. But that is notoriously difficult to defend with little time on the clock. Just how confident is Rapport of his technique here?!
Here we go, we reach one of the most famous drawn endgames in chess! Many grandmasters have lost it, though a higher % of the time they do manage to hold the draw. If Rapport can manage it, then he's through to round 4!
A well-known technique, pinning the bishop from behind.
Rapport can claim a draw after 50 moves if Erdogmus has not yet made any progress. While the arbiter can step in after 75 moves.
Less than 20 moves to go until the 50-move draw rule kicks into force. Will Rapport know exactly when to claim it though?!
Short of a dramatic last-second blunder, Erdogmus' run in the World Cup is about to be over in the next few moves as we are about to reach 50 moves without any material traded.
Heartbreak for Erdogmus
The 14-year old Turkish prodigy was facing the unenviable task of needing a win on demand with the Black pieces, against a player of the caliber of Richard Rapport.
Nevertheless, he did more than just give his Hungarian opponent a run for his money. The opening went very much his way, with a persistent squeeze due to Rapport’s weakness along the central light squares.
Under pressure, Richard erred and allowed Erdogmus to net himself a clean pawn advantage. And, later, to generate an attack on the kingside.
The combination proved too much for Rapport, who found himself blundering away a second pawn.
Things appeared hopeless for him, but the tricky grandmaster set one final trap involving a series of checks from his last remaining pieces of rook and bishop. Here, Erdogmus’ inexperience and nerves may have shown, as sadly for his fans he did fall for that one final trick, and all of a sudden the position flipped back to complete equality.
Erdogmus still probed and prodded for a very long time, 120+ moves in all. But Rapport showed that he was perfectly comfortable defending a rook vs rook and bishop ending, a well-known theoretical draw that all top grandmasters have spent time studying.
In the end, experience wins the day. Congratulations to Richard Rapport as he punches his ticket to round 4, while Erdogmus’ impressive run in the 2025 World Cup comes to an end!
Erdogmus in a must-win!
The first rapid game quickly turned into disaster for the 14-year old Turkish prodigy.
In the opening, he did not seem to latch on to a clear plan, ending up shuffling his rook and knights around a little too frequently in the early stages.
This allowed Rapport to sense an opening, and the Hungarian grandmaster wasted little time seizing the initiative by pushing his left-edge pawn forward to harass Erdogmus' most vulnerable knight.
Erdogmus, to his credit, hung in there until almost the end. But the best he was able to obtain in an ending was a theoretically drawn rook and pawn position, but one where he was down two pawns. In practice, his fate was largely sealed by then.
It's must-win territory now for Erdogmus. If he wants to stay in the competition, he's going to have to find a way to break down Rapport's defenses, and to do so with the Black pieces!
No mean feat, let's see if he can do it!