Richard Rapport: ‘Helping a contender at World Chess Championship is like taking care of a child’

This yr’s World Chess Championships was arguably probably the most pulsating battles within the historical past of the Championships. After a nerve-wracking, see-saw battle, the place there was nothing to separate the duo over 14 classical video games, Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren beat Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi within the tie-breaker.

World Championship contenders historically rent a staff of Grandmasters — known as seconds — to assist them put together for and throughout the match. Usually, the title of seconds is a closely-guarded secret. Ding although, selected to not go the normal means. Hungarian-Romanian GM Richard Rapport was a really seen presence within the nook of Ding, who was defying custom in different methods as properly by turning into the primary Chinese GM to play within the males’s World Championship encounter.

Speaking forward of the Global Chess League (GCL), Rapport mentioned the expertise of being a second was an emotional one, evaluating it to caring for a toddler.

🚨It’s Official I @rjrapport Just Made #TheBigMove

Prepare to be dazzled by this star of chess as Grandmaster #RichardRapport joins the elite ranks of the #GlobalChessLeague! #GCL Starts twenty first June, 2023 pic.twitter.com/UjVI23FoUl

— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) May 29, 2023

“I’m not a parent, but parents care for their children very much. They always feel like helping the kid out even in simple tasks. If they make even a small mistake, you feel that maybe you should’ve done something more. It becomes a truly emotional connection. So yes, I would say that being a second for the World Championship contender is like taking care of a child,” he informed The Indian Express.

It grew to become fairly evident early on within the contest that Ding was going to struggle a psychological battle aside from the one he was combating on the board. After blundering away the second sport, Ding appeared mentally rattled, admitting as a lot in a really candid press convention look. Eventually although, he did phenomenally properly to struggle again and win the Championships.

“Part of my job was to be present and support Ding away from the chess board. Chess-wise a player can seek help from many people, but psychologically, it was a very demanding tournament. So it’s more profitable to have someone you are close to rather than have a person with some 100 ELO rating points more. Liren is a nice person and I’ve had a good relationship with him. I’m on great terms with the Chinese chess community too and perhaps that’s why they asked me to help him,” he added.

Chess is a person sport and serving to one other chess participant put together for his match was a little bit of an alien idea to Rapport.

“I’ve never really been in a second’s shoes. I didn’t have seconds in the past myself so this whole experience was kind of alien to me. I definitely see things differently after this and I’m grateful for this experience that I know not many Grandmasters will have,” he mentioned earlier than including that he wouldn’t be open to serving to each participant who requested him for his assist as a second since “it is important to believe in the project”.

Richard Rapport is now part of Ding Liren’s household! A beautiful body. pic.twitter.com/uIKZ4fbKdG

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) April 30, 2023

Born in Hungary however now enjoying for the Romanian federation, Rapport mentioned that it was nice Ding and he fashioned a private connection and whereas that made them belief one another, it was very traumatic for him as properly.

“When you get invested in this, it becomes very stressful. I feel like I lost 10 years of my life,” he chuckled.

“I might’ve cherished to be a spectator for the Nepo vs Ding match and be utterly unbiased. It was a really thrilling match and also you didn’t know what would occur the following second. It was totally different from once I play video games, as a result of I can change issues on the board.

“But in the World Championship game, it’s almost like you have this religious kind of belief (in your candidate) and you depend on a higher power. Whatever you do that day is kind of irrelevant and you just try to help as much as you can,” he mentioned.

After having the expertise of serving to Ding turn out to be World Champion, one would assume that Rapport can be itching to compete for the title himself. The 27-year-old although, doesn’t harbour any such ambitions.

Ding Liren performs the unbelievable Kf1!!, a loopy pc transfer which no one else might discover! 🧠

He’s now in a totally successful place in opposition to Richard Rapport on transfer 22 👏 #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/U5DSAhEZua

— Chess.com (@chesscom) June 19, 2022

“I’m not going to play the World Cup (in Baku) and neither am I going to play in the FIDE cycle. I don’t feel like it. In fact, in seven years, I played only one event and qualified for the Candidates. This is a personal decision. I’m not extremely ambitious but neither am I completely unambitious in that regard. It’s just something I don’t feel like doing right now,” he mentioned.

Rapport mentioned he prefers enjoying in leagues and tournaments he will get invited to, tournaments that he is aware of are organised properly. Even although it’s the inaugural season of the GCL, Rapport mentioned he was impressed by how valued he was made to really feel by the organisers. He will staff up with five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, and GMs Leinier Dominguez Perez, Yifan Hou, Bella Khotenashvili and Andrey Esipenko for Ganges Grandmasters.

“The fact that Vishy (Anand) is in our team is going to be a morale booster. Even Yifan (four-time Women’s World Champion) is a legend,” he mentioned. “We don’t have training in chess to be a team player. Chess raises you to be an individual player. So this will be fun.”