Richárd Rapport (born 25 March 1996) is a Hungarian-Romanian
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
chess prodigy
The term chess prodigy refers to a young child who possesses an aptitude for the game of chess that far exceeds what might be expected at their age. Their prodigious talent will often enable them to defeat experienced adult players and even title ...
, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 11 months and 6 days, making him Hungary's youngest ever grandmaster. He was the Hungarian Chess Champion in 2017 and was the 5th highest rated player in the world
Early life
Rapport was born in
Szombathely
Szombathely (; german: Steinamanger, ; see also other alternative names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by t ...
, to Tamás Rapport and Erzsébet Mórocz, both economists. He learned chess at age four from his father.
Titles
In 2006, he won the European Championships U10. 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
Szentgotthárd ( sl, Monošter; german: St. Gotthard) is the westernmost town of Hungary. It is situated on the Rába River near the Austrian border.
History
The town took its name from, and grew up round, the Cistercian Szentgotthárd Abbey, fo ...
, he fulfilled the final norm and rating requirements for the Grandmaster title. He came in second on the tournament behind his trainer
Alexander Beliavsky
Alexander Genrikhovich Beliavsky (, ua, Олександр Генріхович Бєлявський, sl, Aleksander Henrikovič Beljavski; also romanized ''Belyavsky''; born December 17, 1953) is a Soviet, Ukrainian and Slovenian chess pl ...
, and tied with Lajos Portisch (one of the strongest non-Soviet players in the second half of the 20th century). 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
Peter Leko ( hu, Lékó Péter; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess player and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was draw ...
), and the fifth youngest chess grandmaster in history at the time.
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the ...
and
Nils Grandelius
Nils Axel Grandelius (born 3 June 1993 in Lund, Sweden) is a Swedish chess grandmaster. He is the top ranked player of Sweden.
Chess career
FIDE awarded him the titles FIDE Master, in 2007, International Master, in 2008, and Grandmaster in 20 ...
From 20 to 23 December, Rapport won a match against 17-year-old Chinese player
Wei Yi
Wei Yi (born 2 June 1999) is a Chinese chess grandmaster.
Wei became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 8 months and 23 days, the 9th youngest in history. He is the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2700, accomplishing this feat ...
, held in
Yancheng
Yancheng () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. As the city with the largest jurisdictional area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai'an to the west, Yangzhou and Taiz ...
, 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
According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
game, which Rapport won with the black pieces by resignation.
2017
At the
Tata Steel Chess Tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...
in January 2017 he played his first game against
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...
and won with white in 33 moves.
He won the
Hungarian Chess Championship The inaugural Hungarian Chess Championship was held in the city of Győr in 1906. Initially, there was no governing body responsible for its organisation, until the formation of the Hungarian Chess Federation. The HCF first appeared in 1911, but f ...
in May 2017.
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
Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the ...
.
2019
Rapport won against
Sam Shankland
Samuel L. Shankland (born October 1, 1991) is an American chess grandmaster. He won the U.S. Chess Championship in 2018.
Shankland was California State Champion in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012, and Champion of State Champions in 2009. He won bron ...
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.
2022
Rapport won the second leg of the
FIDE Grand Prix 2022
The FIDE Grand Prix 2022 was a series of three chess tournaments played between 4 February and 4 April 2022. The top two finishers – Hikaru Nakamura (winner) and Richárd Rapport (runner-up) – qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022,
in Belgrade, Serbia.
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
The 2022 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2023. The tournament took place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to July 5, 2022,https://www.chessdom.com/breaking-richard-rapport-changes-federation-to-romania/ BREAKING: Richard Rapport changes federation to Romania It was officially announced that he would be switching federations in September 2022.https://twitter.com/FrsahRo/status/1566384626876223488
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
, since the age of 18, where his wife Jovana Vojinović, a Woman Grandmaster, is from. They
married
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
in 2016.
Playing style
Rapport often uses unusual openings even in official 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.