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Journalism of Courage
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 with Ding. So I don’t like to discuss this too much about friends.”
Rapport’s influence was widely thought to be the reason why Ding played a couple of unconventional moves at the World Championship against Nepomniachtchi. So not having him back for the second time signals an intention to try new tactics from the world champion. Of course, Gukesh and his team would not read too much into any of this, considering the cloak-and-dagger manner of how world championship contenders operate.
Rapport added: “When it came to their levels, I think as a chess fan I hope that even though Gukesh has been showing really impressive performances lately while Ding has not really (been showing good performances), to put it mildly, the world championship match is going to be a different story simply because it is a match, it’s one on one! It’s not about beating all the guys, it’s about beating the same guy.
“Because of Ding’s past experience… playing in the world championship before will help Ding. I don’t feel like the odds are too one-sided as it seems right now and as colleagues of mine are saying. I’m looking forward to watching them play and watching good quality chess as a world championship,” said Rapport, who will be teammates with two former world champions in the form of Magnus Carlsen and Hou Yifan in the second edition of the Global Chess League at the Alpine SG Pipers team, where Praggnanandhaa will also be a player.
Last year, in an interview with The Indian Express, Rapport had spoken about the experience of helping Ding Liren.
“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… When you get invested in this, it becomes very stressful. I feel like I lost 10 years of my life,” Rapport had said.
