After a heartbreaking loss against Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 7th round of the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2022, Richard Rapport decided to focus on his outfit rather than on the game preparation. The audience loved the jacket he wore yesterday and Richie disclosed it was a choice of his wife WGM Jovana Rapport: “I would like to say something overconfident, but actually it was my wife choice. She insisted on me wearing it (the jacket) yesterday, which proved to be very smart that I avoided that. Because it wouldn’t have been fair towards the jacket. So I chose to wear it today“.
After the game with Nepo, Rapport said he should probably throw away his computer, and now he confirms that he is not opening ChessBase anymore: “I just chose it (the opening) in the moment. I didn’t really look at chess after yesterday’s game. I didn’t even open ChessBase, actually. I saw that he played 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6, so I figured it will be hard to lose in 15 moves if I protect the pawn.“.
Being asked about the strategy for the next games, Richard said with a laugh: “Nothing. I will think about my outfit to confuse“. See the complete interview below.
Replay the games:
R7 Candidates Chess 2022 – Richard Rapport – Ian Nepomniachtchi 0-1
R8 Candidates Chess 2022 – Richard Rapport – Jan-Krzysztof Duda 1-0
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