Rapport was the highest-ranked player in the standings featuring in Belgrade, with United States’ Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominquez not featuring in the Serbian capital.

Rapport, who lives in Belgrade, began the Grand Prix event in Pool C at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

He secured two wins over India’s Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, along with recording four draws in matches against Spain’s Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Fedoseev.

Fedoseev was among several Russian players competing under the International Chess Federation (FIDE) flag due to the nation’s ban in response to the war in Ukraine.

Having finished top of Pool C, Rapport beat France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in their first match and secured a draw in the second to advance to the final.

The effort improved on his semi-final defeat at the opening Grand Prix event in Berlin.

He would face the challenge of Dmitry Andreikin in the final, after the Russian player overcame the Netherlands’ Anish Giri 2.5 to 1.5 after tiebreaks were required in the second semi-final.

Andreikin, the two-time Russian champion, had replaced world number three Ding Liren in the draw due to the Chinese player absence as a result of "insurmountable obstacles" relating to travel restrictions.

The first match of the final ended in a draw.

The second appeared to be heading the same way until Rapport made a bold move after a 12-minute deliberate, with both players having to make quick decision with each having less than two minutes on the clock.

Rapport was able to force Andreikin to make a mistake, with the Hungarian then able to seal victory.

The result puts Rapport top of the overall standings on 20 points, with two of the three Grand Prix events now completed.

Nakamura is second on 13 after winning the opening competition, with Aronian and Andreikin on 10 points.

The third FIDE Grand Prix event will be held in Berlin from March 21 to April 4.

The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix will advance to the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Madrid.

The winner of the eight-player Candidates Tournament will advance to 2023 World Chess Championship, where they will face five-time reigning champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway.