Born in Narva, Estonia, he won the Estonian Junior Championship in 1940, then defected to Finland from then Nazi-occupied Estonia in 1943 and from there to Sweden. In 1945, just after World War II ended, Sarapu was invited to stay with a family friend in Denmark. In 1946, he won the Copenhagen championship and the Copenhagen five-minute lightning championship. In 1948, he played twenty simultaneous blindfold games in Denmark.
Sarapu's only international tournament in Europe was at Oldenburg 1949 where he defeated Efim Bogoljubow. Sarapu finished in fifth place with 11-6, a point behind tournament winners Bogolyubow and Elmars Zemgalis and a half-point behind Nicolas Rossolimo and Herbert Heinicke.
One of Sarapu's opponents at the Oldenburg tournament was former New Zealander Robert Wade; in a conversation after their game, Wade suggested that New Zealand would be a good place for someone like Sarapu, who wanted to escape war-ravaged Europe.
Sarapu met Barbara Bialonczyk after the Oldenburg tournament, and they married in 1950 and immediately emigrated to New Zealand, arriving in Wellington in October 1950.
At the time of his arrival in New Zealand there was such a gap between Saraapu and his opponents that he won the championship with 10.5 points out of 11 games. Sarapu took first place at the Melbourne International Tournament in 1955. He was awarded the IM title in 1966 after he won the Asian Zonal, making him the second New Zealand player to gain the IM title, the first being Robert G Wade.
Chess Power has a very nice tribute to Sarapu HERE.
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