All posts tagged: Richard Rapport

Who are the only two left-handed players at the chess Candidates at Cyprus?

Who are the only two left-handed players at the chess Candidates at Cyprus?

Published by Webster

2 min readApr 3, 2026 08:19 PM IST It doesn’t matter a jot. Not an iota in chess of the classical format, though ambidextrous players might find the blitz or the Armageddon to be a good go. But there are only two players at the Candidates tournament in Cyprus who might play left handed. Both Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura play it straight up right, though Hans Niemann is a southpaw. Another American Awonder Liang plays with his left, according to a list prepared by Fuettli on Reddit. Andrey Esipenko scrambled with right, and the only Russian leftie in the Top 50 might be Daniil Dubov. Gawain Jones of England and Kirill Shevchenko of Romania, Dmitrij Kollars of Germany are the other southpaw. The highest rated male chess player, who would have made an exciting addition to the Candidates, but didn’t, is Indian Arjun Erigasi. Arbiters at FIDE tend to choose which side the clock would be while pacing up and down the floor. The other activities needing non clumsiness are writing with the …

Richard Rapport praises ‘safety net’ that has helped India’s chess stars rise meteorically | Chess News

Richard Rapport praises ‘safety net’ that has helped India’s chess stars rise meteorically | Chess News

Published by Webster

Richard Rapport remembers being impressed when a newly-minted world champion Gukesh Dommaraju rattled off the names of the Avengers that he had assembled to help him dethrone Ding Liren at the world chess championship in 2024. At that world championship in December last year, the Hungarian grandmaster, who has made a name for himself as a man who can think out of the box and brings plenty of creativity in openings besides wild and unpredictable moves, was at the other side of the battlefield, having enlisted with Team Ding for both of the Chinese grandmaster’s world championship battles. “When I saw Team Gukesh, it was a very impressive team of people. To be able to afford and to be able to maintain such a setup, it’s just very impressive,” Rapport tells The Indian Express in an interview ahead of the third edition of the Global Chess League where he will represent the American Gambits franchise. For his first assault at the world champion’s crown, the then 18-year-old from Chennai had brought together a team of …

Ding Liren played better quality chess than Gukesh at World Championship: Richard Rapport | Chess News

Ding Liren played better quality chess than Gukesh at World Championship: Richard Rapport | Chess News

Published by Webster

Grandmaster Richard Rapport, who was Ding Liren’s second at the chess World Championship, has said that the Chinese Grandmaster played better quality of chess than his opponent, D Gukesh, during the 14-game title match. Speaking to Chinese Chess Association’s social media channel, the Hungarian said: “I think he played overall better chess than the opponent (Gukesh). It’s painful from him to lose last game this way. I can only imagine how he feels”. Ahead of the final game, the scores were tied at 6.5 each with both players winning two games each. Game 14 was headed for an easy draw with tie-breaks looming before Ding, who was playing with white pieces, made a fatal error in the endgame that saw 18-year-old Gukesh become the youngest-ever world chess champion. Mind you, Ding was rated as the favourite had the match gone into the shorter-format tiebreaks. Thoughts by @rjrapport on the #DingGukesh match: “Of course it’s very painful to lose the last game this way. I can only imagine how [Ding] feels…I’m very happy he gave me …

World Chess Championship: Of grandmasters in shorts, grandmasters meditating and GMs who admire Lamar Odom | Chess News

World Chess Championship: Of grandmasters in shorts, grandmasters meditating and GMs who admire Lamar Odom | Chess News

Published by Webster

As the fog of war envelops the board in Game 5 and pieces start losing their lives, D Gukesh leans back and closes his eyes. His opponent, the 17th world champion of the world, sneaks a couple of glances at the teenager before quickly casting them downwards at the board. On the FIDE YouTube commentary, the experts once again explain to fans that Gukesh is not catching a quick shut-eye in the middle of the game. He’s just meditating, like a lot of Indian players do during chess games. The trend started with Vidit Gujrathi, whose pre-match ritual begins with him bowing his head in front of the board almost like he’s praying to the little wooden idols. But Gukesh has taken it a step further at the world championship, crossing his arms across the chest, sitting ram-rod straight and going into a zen-like meditation. At the press conference after Game 5, he is asked what he’s thinking during these phases. “I close my eyes quite often during games. Sometimes, it is just that it’s …

Global Chess League: How Magnus Carlsen blundered against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to lose with white | Chess News

Global Chess League: How Magnus Carlsen blundered against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to lose with white | Chess News

Published by Webster

Magnus Carlsen sat on his seat looking up in the sky, muttering away. He could not believe what he had just done. It was a blunder from the five-time world champion which was unexpected and uncharacteristic in equal measure. It took a while to sink in for the Norwegian. But finally, Carlsen threw in the towel against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and exited the playing hall in a huff. What made matters worse was that his team, the Alpine SG Pipers, lost 5-14 to the upGrad Mumba Masters with defeats for Richard Rapport and Daniel Dardha. Rapport, in fact, allowed Pragg’s coach Peter Svidler — who had not experienced a win in his six games at the second edition of the Global Chess League — his first victory after two defeats and four draws. Only Praggnanandhaa managed a victory for the Pipers’, beating Vidit Gujrathi, his senior teammate from the Indian gold medal-winning Chess Olympiad team. The rest of the games in the clash — Hou Yifan vs Koneru Humpy and Kateryna Lagno vs Harika Dronavalli — …

Carlsen Falls to Firouzja as Triveni Continental Kings beat Alpine SG Pipers

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World number one Magnus Carlsen ran out of time and lost to Alireza Firouzja, as reigning champions Triveni Continental Kings secured a decisive 17-4 victory over Alpine SG Pipers in Season 2 of the Global Chess League on Friday. The match initially seemed balanced, with computer evaluations showing equality across the boards halfway through the time control. Richard Rapport struck first for the Pipers, launching a powerful attack against Teimour Radjabov, giving his team an early lead. Soon after, former women’s world champions Hou Yifan and Alexandra Kosteniuk agreed to a draw, pushing Pipers to a 4-1 advantage. However, the momentum shifted when Carlsen, despite finding a weakness in Firouzja’s position, was defeated by the clock. Firouzja’s time advantage became critical, leading to Carlsen’s rare time loss and handing Triveni the lead. R. Pragnanandhaa’s defeat to Wei Yi further strengthened Triveni’s dominance, and the Pipers ultimately crumbled on the remaining boards, resulting in a crushing defeat. Source link

Will Richard Rapport be in Ding Liren’s corner for World Chess Championship battle against Gukesh? | Chess News

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The choice of which players are part of the team of a contender at the World Chess Championship is possibly the most closely-guarded secret in chess. A small coterie of seconds and trainers work in the shadows to prop up a player’s claim to win the most prestigious crown in the sport. World champion Ding Liren broke with convention at last year’s World Chess Championship by travelling to Astana with his second Richard Rapport. The Hungarian was a very visible presence at the venue that was hosting Ding Liren’s battles with Ian Nepomniachtchi. But this time around, there is a question mark over whether Rapport will be by Ding Liren’s side when the Chinese world champion takes on the 18-year-old Gukesh, who is bidding to be the youngest world champion in history. When asked what we had learnt about Ding Liren and Gukesh’s form at the World Chess Championship, Rapport curiously said: “I don’t want to respond too much, because I’m not having working relations (with Ding). I still feel like I’m on friendly terms …

‘A landslide’: Shock and awe in world of chess after India’s show of strength at Chess Olympiad | Chess News

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The Indian contingent made the world sit up and take notice after their performance at the Chess Olympiad where the country claimed three team gold medals — for open section, women’s category and the overall section — besides four individual golds, won by Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal. It was the kind of dominance that is unprecedented at an Olympiad, particularly since there are over 180 nations competing. India’s performance was so devastating that even opponents could not help but applaud. “India were playing at their best and other opponents were struggling. It was a landslide!” Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport told The Indian Express. Grandmaster Anish Giri puts it in perspective. “What we saw at the Olympiad was what we expected to happen. With the trends that we were seeing in the past few years, it was obvious that India was going to dominate at some point. Everybody was talking about it. But it’s one thing to talk about it in the abstract and assume that some players will dominate. It’s another …

R Praggnanandhaa loses to Richard Rapport in 3rd round of Prague Masters

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Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa committed an error for the second day in a row to suffer a defeat against Richard Rapport of Romania in the third round of the Prague Masters tournament underway in Prague, Czech Republic, on Friday. This defeat will make things harder for Praggnanandhaa as he will have to work hard in the remaining six rounds of the 10-player round-robin contest. Meanwhile, the all-Indian clash between Vidit Gujrathi and D Gukesh ended in a draw, with none able to force matters. But Praggnandhaa was not the only one to concede their chances. Nodirbek Abdusattarov of Uzbekistan turned the tables on local star David Navara from a nearly hopeless position when the latter failed to keep his nerves under pressure after attaining a winning position. On the other hand, in Shenzen, China, Arjun Erigaisi became the new India number one after he defeated Xiangyu Yu of China in the first round of the Shenzen Masters. At the Prague Masters, Praggnanandhaa lost to Rapport at the last moment. The Hungarian-turned-Romanian, Rapport, is known for his …