Hikaru Nakamura secured a place in the Candidates Tournament despite losing to Wesley So in the final of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin ©Getty Images

Wesley So of the Philippines won the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Grand Prix in Berlin today, with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States and Richard Rapport of Hungary securing places in the Candidates Tournament.

So defeated Nakamura in the final by a scoreline of one and a half to a half to win the final stage of the three-leg FIDE Grand Prix series.

The first game of the final was drawn on Saturday (April 2) and after the second game was drawn yesterday, reached after just 14 moves, a tiebreaker game was required today.

Playing with the black pieces, So got himself into an early positional advantage before Nakamura took advantage of errors by his opponent to get into a good attacking position on the kingside.

So negotiated this tricky position and with game one declared a draw, a second tiebreaker was required.

So had a slight edge before the crucial moment on the 32nd move saw Nakamura make a bad blunder, allowing So to emerge a piece up and convert the advantage to win the match.

So finished the series standings on 17 points, earned across the two legs held in Berlin.

Nakamura had 13 points from the first round in Berlin, and claimed 10 more on this occasion, to put himself top of the season standings with 23.

Rapport did not participate in this round, but his 20 points earned from the first round in Berlin and the second in Belgrade, Serbia, was enough for him to earn second place in the overall standings.

As the top two in the season standings, Rapport and Nakamura advance to the FIDE Candidates Tournament, due to be held in Madrid between June 16 and July 5.

The winner of that encounter is then scheduled to face Norwegian Magnus Carlsen in the 2023 World Chess Championship, with dates and a venue yet to be confirmed.