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How does one explain the lovely chess metamorphosis of Richard Rapport? Richard's early chess heroes were Polgar, Leko (both rather natural for a fellow Hungarian), and Kramnik, as cited when he beat Polgar's and Leko's record as the youngest ever Hungarian GM at 13. And he played accordingly, starting as a 1.e4 player and then graduating to 1.d4. with the occasional 1.NF3. It's only relatively recently, the last 18 months or so, that Richard has started to play like an absolute madman with 1.b3/Nc3/f4/e3, and concomitantly seen his rating skyrocket to 2720.2, the top U18 in the world and #28 in the world.
This is pure rampant speculation on my part, but I wonder if we don't owe a great big thank you to Deep Fritz 13 for Richard's metamorphosis. On September 18, 2012 Richard, playing under his playchess.com moniker, Wizard96 (it's always a good bet that when you see a number in an online chess name it refers to their year of birth), rated 2818 at the time, played a 21 game bullet match againstg DeepFritz13, rated 3297 prior to the match. The results were rather predictable, Richard lost his 2800 status, 1 point at a time, and DeepFrtiz13 soon attained 3300 status.
What I find terribly interesting in that match is the opening selection. DeepFritz13 played 1.e4 in all 10 of its White games and Richard responded rather classically with 3 French, 3 Spanish, 2 Sicilian, 1 Caro-Kann, and 1 Scandinavian Defence, not that it did him any good.
Richard played 1.e4 4 times and 1.d4 7 times in his 11 White games. Every time Richard played 1.e4, DeepFritz13 responded 1. ...d5 and won rather easily with its Scandinavian Defence. And against Richard's 1.d4 DeepFritz13 amusingly responded each and every time with 1. ...e5, the Englund Gambit (but after 2. ...Nc6 it followed with 3. ...d6, giving the opening an almost Icelandic Gambit look/feel). Could this possibly have been the catalyst for Richard's current play anything as long as its offbeat approach?
All 21 bullet games are available online in a 2 part presentation at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxKot-vA2e0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6o126tUnfw
This is pure rampant speculation on my part, but I wonder if we don't owe a great big thank you to Deep Fritz 13 for Richard's metamorphosis. On September 18, 2012 Richard, playing under his playchess.com moniker, Wizard96 (it's always a good bet that when you see a number in an online chess name it refers to their year of birth), rated 2818 at the time, played a 21 game bullet match againstg DeepFritz13, rated 3297 prior to the match. The results were rather predictable, Richard lost his 2800 status, 1 point at a time, and DeepFrtiz13 soon attained 3300 status.
What I find terribly interesting in that match is the opening selection. DeepFritz13 played 1.e4 in all 10 of its White games and Richard responded rather classically with 3 French, 3 Spanish, 2 Sicilian, 1 Caro-Kann, and 1 Scandinavian Defence, not that it did him any good.
Richard played 1.e4 4 times and 1.d4 7 times in his 11 White games. Every time Richard played 1.e4, DeepFritz13 responded 1. ...d5 and won rather easily with its Scandinavian Defence. And against Richard's 1.d4 DeepFritz13 amusingly responded each and every time with 1. ...e5, the Englund Gambit (but after 2. ...Nc6 it followed with 3. ...d6, giving the opening an almost Icelandic Gambit look/feel). Could this possibly have been the catalyst for Richard's current play anything as long as its offbeat approach?
All 21 bullet games are available online in a 2 part presentation at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxKot-vA2e0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6o126tUnfw
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