Rapport achieved this feat by placing second, in a tie with his legendary compatriot Lajos Portisch, at Gotth’ Art Cup 2010 in Kupa, Hungary. Another noted veteran, former Soviet champ Alexander Beliavsky, finished first, half-a-point ahead of the two Hungarians.
Born on March 25, 1996 in Szombathely, located close to the Austrian border, Richard learned how to play the game from his father. Both his parents are economists. Richard topped the Hungarian youth championship in 2008 and won the silver medal in last year’s Hungarian team championship.
Richard is still an elementary school student but is already studying English and German. His trainers are GMs Péter Lukács, Róbert Ruck and GM József Pintér.
Chess fans, notes our guest annotator IM Jack Peters, “have grown numb to the exploits of adolescent wonders.”
He adds, “The World Chess Federation’s March rating list includes 1,248 men and 21 women who hold the grandmaster title. There are 37 players (about 3 percent of GMs) rated over 2700. Of these, 12 acquired the title at age 16 or younger and 21 achieved it at age 17 or 18. The eldest of the four outliers, Boris Gelfand, was already among the top 20 in the world when he belatedly received the GM title at age 21 in 1989.”
Writing for the New York Review of Books, Gary “The Greatest” Kasparov believes that with “the introduction of super-powerful software, it became possible for a youngster to have a top-level opponent at home instead of needing a professional trainer from an early age…. The availability of millions of games at one’s fingertips in a database is…making the game’s best players younger and younger. Absorbing the thousands of essential patterns and opening moves used to take many years…. Today’s teens, and increasingly pre-teens, can accelerate this process by plugging into a digitized archive of chess information and making full use of the superiority of the young mind to retain it all. In the pre-computer era, teenage grandmasters were rarities and almost always destined to play for the world championship. Bobby Fischer’s 1958 record of attaining the grandmaster title at fifteen was broken only in 1991. It has been broken twenty times since then, with the current record holder, Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin, having claimed the highest title at the nearly absurd age of twelve in 2002. Now twenty, Karjakin is among the world’s best, but like most of his modern wunderkind peers he’s no Fischer, who stood out head and shoulders above his peers — and soon enough above the rest of the chess world as well.”
Gary, incidentally, is hoping that his student, another former child prodigy, Magnus Carlsen, will be the next Fischer.
Game of the week. IM Jack Peters annotates.
White: Yu Lie (2407)
Black: Richard Rapport (2444)
Queen’s Gambit Declined
Budapest 2010
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 e6 An invitation to the Meran variation, 5 e3 Nbd7 6 Bd3 dxc4 7 Bxc4 b5. 5 cxd5 exd5 6 Bg5 White prefers a standard position from the Exchange variation of the Queen’s Gambit. h6 7 Bh4 Bf5!? 8 e3 Theory currently regards the sharp 8 Qb3 g5 as good for Black after 9 Bg3 Qb6 or 9 Qxb7 gxh4 10 Qxa8 Qb6. Nbd7 9 Bd3 Bxd3 Eliminating his bad Bishop and securing even chances. 10 Qxd3 Be7 11 0-0 0-0 12 Qc2 Nor does 12 Rab1 a5 13 a3 Re8 offer White anything special. Nh5 13 Bg3 Simpler is 13 Bxe7 Qxe7 14 e4. Nxg3 14 hxg3 Bd6 15 Rab1 Dreaming of b2-b4-b5, which Black will squelch. White should aim for a central breakthrough, such as 15 e4 dxe4 16 Nxe4. Qe7 16 a3 a5 17 Nh4 Qe6 18 Rfe1?! Missing his last opportunity for activity in the center. Either 18 e4 or 18 Qb3 b5 19 e4 maintains equality. f5! 19 Qb3 b5 20 a4 Now 20 e4 works poorly. After 20…a4 21 Qa2 fxe4 22 Nxe4 Bc7 23 Nf3 Qf7 24 Ned2 Rae8, White’s Queen is far removed from the action on the e- and f-files. b4 21 Ne2 g5 22 Nf3 White’s position still looks solid, making a draw plausible. However, the prodigy builds up a decisive Kingside attack without any obvious errors by White. Nf6 23 Nc1 Ne4 24 Qc2 Rac8 25 Nd3 Observing c5 and e5. If 25 Nb3, Black can ignore White’s threat to the a-pawn, as 25…Rc7 26 Nxa5? c5! 27 Nb3 c4 28 Nbd2 b3 29 Qd1 Ra7 recovers the pawn and plans an invasion at a2. h5! 26 Qe2 Kg7 27 Rbc1 Rh8 28 Nde5 Probably White imagined counterplay from 28…g4? 29 Nh4 Bxe5 30 dxe5 Qxe5 31 Qa6, but Black need not abandon his attack for a measly pawn. The alternative 28 Nc5 also receives harsh treatment from 28…Bxc5 29 dxc5 Qf6 30 Nd4 g4! 31 Qa6 Kg6 32 Qxa5 h4, when White’s King will not survive. h4! 29 gxh4 White retains a little hope after 29 g4!? fxg4 30 Nd2. However, Black should proceed 29 g4 h3! 30 g3 fxg4, when 31 Nd2 Nxd2 32 Qxd2 Bxe5 33 dxe5 h2+! 34 Kg2 Qf5! 35 Qe2 Qe4+ 36 f3 gxf3+ 37 Qxf3 Qxe5 leaves White’s Kingside in tatters. g4 30 Ng5?! Losing quickly. White lasts longer with 30 Nd2 Bxe5 31 dxe5 Rxh4 32 Nxe4 fxe4, but he cannot handle the threats on the f- and h-files. Fleeing, by 33 Qd2 Qf5 34 Kf1, is thwarted amusingly by 34…Qf3! 35 gxf3 gxf3. Black would promote a Queenside pawn after 33 g3 Rh6 34 Kg2 Qf5 35 Rh1 Rch8 36 Rxh6 Rxh6 37 Rh1?! Qf3+. Toughest is 33 Qa6 Rh6 34 Kf1 g3 35 fxg3 Rf8+ 36 Ke2 Qxe5 37 Rc2 Qxg3 38 Kd1, avoiding mate but not saving the game. Qh6! Welcoming 31 Ngf7 Qxh4 32 Nxh8 Rxh8. 31 Nxe4 Qxh4 Seeing 32 Ng3 Qh2+ 33 Kf1 Qh1+ 34 Nxh1 Rxh1 mate and 32 f3 fxe4 33 Nxg4 Bg3. 32 f4 dxe4 Threatening 33…g3. 33 Qc4 Bxe5 34 fxe5 g3 35 Kf1 Qg4! 36 Kg1 Rh2!, White Resigns. Checkmate follows 37 Qe2 Qxe2 38 Rxe2 Rch8 and 37 Qe6 Rxg2+! 38 Kxg2 Qf3+.
Puzzler.
White — Ka4, Ba6, Nb8, Nc6, Qc1, pawns on e3 and h4
Black — Kd5, Nd6, Rf7, Bh7, Rh3, pawns on b3, c4, c7, d4, e6 and f3
White to play and mate in four.
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