Richárd Rapport

Richárd Rapport (born 25 March 1996) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster (now representing Romania). A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 11 months, and six days, making him Hungary's youngest ever grandmaster.[2] He was the Hungarian Chess Champion in 2017 and was the fifth-rated player in the world in May 2022.[3]

The native form of this personal name is Rapport Richárd. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Richárd Rapport
Rapport at Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
CountryHungary (until 2022)
Romania (since 2022)[1]
Born (1996-03-25) 25 March 1996
Szombathely, Hungary
TitleGrandmaster (2010)
FIDE rating2752 (October 2023)
Peak rating2776 (April 2022)
RankingNo. 11 (October 2023)
Peak rankingNo. 5 (May 2022)

Early life

Rapport was born in Szombathely, Hungary, to Tamás Rapport and Erzsébet Mórocz, both economists.[4] He learned chess at age four from his father.[5]

Titles

In 2006, he won the European Championships U10.[5] Rapport achieved the National Master title in 2008 and became an International Master the next year. In March 2010, at the Gotth'Art Kupa in Szentgotthárd, he fulfilled the final norm and rating requirements for the Grandmaster title. He came in second on the tournament behind his trainer Alexander Beliavsky and tied with Lajos Portisch (one of the strongest non-Soviet players in the second half of the 20th century).[6] Thus, at the age of 13 years, 11 months and 6 days, he became the youngest ever Hungarian grandmaster (the previous record was held by former world title challenger Péter Lékó), and the fifth youngest chess grandmaster in history at the time.

Chess career

2013

In May, Rapport tied for first in the Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament, together with Nigel Short and Nils Grandelius, winning on tiebreaks (head-to-head result). He scored 4½/7 (+3−1=3).[7]

In December, Rapport won the European Rapid Chess Championship and finished fourth in the European Blitz Chess Championship.[8]

2016

From 20 to 23 December, Rapport won a match against 17-year-old Chinese player Wei Yi, held in Yancheng, China. At the time, Rapport was the highest rated junior (under 21) player at 2717, and Wei Yi was the second-highest rated at 2707. They tied a match of four classical games with a win each and two draws, then tied a tiebreak match of two blitz games, winning one each. The final tiebreak of the match was an Armageddon game, which Rapport won with the black pieces by resignation.[9]

2017

At the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January 2017 he played his first game against Magnus Carlsen and won with white in 33 moves.

He won the Hungarian Chess Championship in May 2017.[10]

He also won the tournament that was covered by Grandmaster Simon Williams in his show called Checkmate, finishing ahead of top seed Arkadij Naiditsch and World Championship challenger Nigel Short.

2019

Rapport won against Sam Shankland in their match, which was part of the USA vs. The World tournament.

2020

Rapport won the 11th Danzhou Tournament. He was the only player to remain undefeated and finished half a point ahead of GM Ding Liren.[11]

2022

Rapport won the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia.[12] That performance, together with reaching the semi-finals in the first leg, was enough to clinch a top-two spot in the Grand Prix and qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, where he finished last with a score of 5½/14.[13]

In May 2022, Rapport announced his intention to switch federations and represent Romania, as part of a sponsorship deal with Serbian-owned Superbet Romania.[14] It was officially announced that he would be switching federations in September 2022.[15]

2023

Rapport was one of the participants of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023 in which he had a rough start by losing to chess prodigy Nodirbek Abdusattorov and later losing to World Champion Magnus Carlsen but returned by defeating the Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi, and later in round 12 snatched a victory against the World No 2. Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren. Rapport finished the tournament placing 8th out of 14 with a score of 6½/13.

Rapport also played the role of Ding's second during the World Chess Championship 2023, in which Ding won against Ian Nepomniachtchi.[16][17]

Personal life

He has lived in Belgrade, Serbia,[18] since the age of 18,[14] where his wife Jovana Vojinović, a Woman Grandmaster, is from. They married in 2016.[18]

Playing style

Rapport often uses unusual openings even in official over-the-board tournaments. One of the most common of these is the Nimzo–Larsen Attack, also known as Larsen's Opening. He plays aggressively, normally playing for a win with both white and black and is considered one of the more exciting players to watch.

Notable games
  • Rapport vs. GM Lajos Seres; First Saturday 2009 August GM, Budapest 2009.08.03, Rnd 3, ECO A89
    1.Nf3 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.0-0 Bg7 5.c4 0-0 6.d4 d6 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.d5 Na5 9.b3 Ne4 10.Nxe4 Bxa1 11.Neg5 c5 12.e4 fxe4 13.Nh4 Bf6 14.Bxe4 Bxg5 15.Bxg5 Rf6 16.Re1 Qf8 17.Bxf6 Qxf6 18.Bf3 a6 19.Qe2 Kf8 20.Bg4 Bxg4 21.Qxg4 b5 22.Re6 Qa1+ 23.Kg2 bxc4 24.Qf4+ Kg8 25.Nxg6 1–0[19]

References
  1. "Transfers in 2022". FIDE.
  2. "Richard Rapport Becomes Hungary's Youngest Grandmaster - Chessdom". players.chessdom.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  3. Top 100 Players May 2022 - Archive, FIDE, March 2022
  4. "ChessBase News | Richárd Rapport – grandmaster at thirteen". Archived from the original on 2013-08-09. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
  5. "Who was the player of the year?". Chess News. 2018-01-07. Retrieved 2018-01-07.
  6. Richard Rapport Becomes Hungary's Youngest Grandmaster
  7. Doggers, Peter (29 May 2013). "Rapport wins 21st Sigeman & Co on tiebreak". ChessVibes. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  8. "Korobov & Rapport Winners at European Blitz & Rapid Ch". Chess.com. Retrieved 2014-04-02.
  9. Baldauf, Marco (24 December 2016). "Wei Yi vs Richard Rapport: The Armageddon Decides". ChessBase Chess News. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  10. Zalakaroson Rapport Richárd nyerte a nyílt magyar bajnokságot
  11. "Richard Rapport Wins 11th Danzhou Tournament".
  12. "Richard Rapport is the winner of the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022".
  13. "Rapport and Nakamura qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament". worldchess.com. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  14. https://www.chessdom.com/breaking-richard-rapport-changes-federation-to-romania/ BREAKING: Richard Rapport changes federation to Romania
  15. Romanian Chess Federation [@FrsahRo] (4 September 2022). "It's official! Richard Rapport will play for Romania 🇷🇴 starting today! Welcome to our team, @rjrapport! 🤗 t.co/Xtjx5JguWV" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 21 September 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2023 – via Twitter.
  16. "World Chess Championship match: The first game ends in a draw". www.fide.com. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  17. Parodi, Alessandro (1 May 2023). "Chess-China's Ding Liren defies odds to become world champion". Reuters.
  18. Kovačević, Marjan (4 January 2018). "Zbog velemajstorske ljubavi stanovnik našeg glavnog grada". Politika (in Serbian).
  19. "Richard Rapport vs. Lajos Seres (2009)". Chessgames.com. Retrieved 2014-04-02.
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