Richard has been a competitive chess player for 26 years–Rank: 1978 ELO–and has been coaching high-school chess teams for 26 years as well. Currently he is designing a curriculum for a for-credit post-secondary chess course.

Richard holds a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario), with specialist training in English. He has been a full-time high-school teacher with the Toronto District School Board for 27 years. Richard has taught over 10 semesters of night school (a mix of teens and adults), also with the Toronto District School Board; he also has training and years of experience teaching English-as-a-Second-Language to adults and teens.

Richard lives in West Bend/The Junction in the west-end of Toronto.