The best Hungarian chess player continues in Romanian colours

On Sunday, the Romanian Chess Federation announced that the best Hungarian player, the 13th-ranked Richárd Rapport, will continue his career in Romanian colours.

Rapport was born and raised in Sé, near Szombathely, Hungary. His father was his main patron, who supported him and his racing with a nine-figure sum, while the Hungarian federation was not really able to help Rapport to reach his full potential in the last ten years. However, he has been approached by several countries recently because of his virtuoso and adventurous style.

At the end of May, the Romanians made the Hungarian chess player an offer he could not refuse, and he reached the final of the World Eights in Madrid this year, where he finished eighth after a good start. Rapport accepted the offer, but when the Hungarian federation responded by trying to keep him at home, it was too late. The state secretary for sport, Ádám Schmidt, who was appointed in June, also tried to help resolve the matter, but the process could not be reversed.

The Romanian federation had already started the transfer procedure for Richard Rapport and his wife, Serbian Jovana Rapport. Jovana has already played for Romania at the European Women’s Championships.

At the time, the federation’s president Vlad Ardeleanu wrote on social media that it was an honour and a pleasure for them to have an excellent chess player like Richárd Rapport, who was ranked fifth in the world at the time, representing Romania. He added that they wanted to integrate him into the Romanian team as soon as possible so that together they could achieve excellent results. Ardeleanu also said that they wanted to continue to maintain good professional relations with the Hungarian and Serbian federations. The MSSZ had earlier protested against the “change of flag” of Richard Rapport and said it would do its utmost to ensure that the grandmaster would continue to compete in Hungarian colours.