Igors Rausis

Igors Rausis (born April 7, 1961) is a retired chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992 and won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1995. He represented Bangladesh from 2003[1] to 2007, when he switched to the Czech Republic.[2] In July 2019, Rausis was caught cheating in a Strasbourg tournament, after which he admitted to the transgression and announced his immediate retirement from chess. The Czech Chess Federation subsequently cancelled his membership, and the FIDE Ethics Commission stripped him of his Grandmaster title and gave him a 6 year ban. Before this, he was the oldest player ranked among FIDE's top 100 players.[3]

Igors Rausis
Igors Rausis at the 2011 Winterthurer Schachwoche tournament
CountrySoviet Union → Latvia
Bangladesh
Czech Republic
Born (1961-04-07) April 7, 1961
Komunarsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
FIDE rating2685 (February 2021)
Peak rating2686 (July 2019)
Peak rankingNo. 49 (January 2020)

Chess career

Rausis won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1995. He played for team Latvia in three Chess Olympiads:[4]

He represented Latvia at the 1993 World Team Chess Championship[5] in Lucerne, at the first reserve board (+0−2=2).

Rausis was also active as a trainer; he coached the Latvian women's team at the 1994 Olympiad, the Bangladeshi team at the 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2018 Olympiads, the Algerian team at the 2010 Olympiad, and the team of Jersey at the 2012 and 2014 Olympiads. In 2018, he was awarded the title of FIDE Trainer.

In July 2019, Rausis was caught cheating in the Strasbourg Open, using a mobile phone in the toilet.[6][7] He admitted to having cheated, and announced his retirement from chess.[8] Prior to the incident, Rausis had been under suspicion for several months;[9] FIDE's Fair Play Commission Secretary, Yuri Garrett, stated in a Facebook post that the Commission "has been closely following [Rausis] for months" on the basis of Ken Regan's statistical insights.[10] On December 5, 2019, the FIDE Ethics Commission banned Rausis from all FIDE-rated chess tournaments for 6 years, and formally revoked his Grandmaster title. [11]

Personal life

He was married to Olita Rause, a Latvian Woman Grandmaster, and has two daughters with her.[12] In 2003, there were allegations that he provided "occasional help" to his wife during correspondence chess tournaments.[13]

References
  1. "Player transfers in 2003". FIDE. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  2. "Player transfers in 2007". FIDE. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  3. "Top 100 Players". FIDE. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  4. Bartelski, Wojciech (ed.). "Men's Chess Olympiads: Igors Rausis". OlimpBase. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  5. Bartelski, Wojciech (ed.). "World Men's Team Chess Championship: Igors Rausis". OlimpBase. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  6. McGourty, Colin (July 12, 2019). "GM Igors Rausis allegedly caught cheating". Chess24.com. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  7. Dorn, Sara (July 13, 2019). "Chess grandmaster allegedly caught cheating on toilet during tournament". New York Post. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  8. "Chess grandmaster admits to cheating with phone on toilet during tournament". The Guardian. July 13, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  9. Shah, Sagar (July 12, 2019). "58-year-old GM Igors Rausis accused of cheating". ChessBase. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  10. Doggers, Peter (July 12, 2019). "GM Igors Rausis Under Cheating Investigation". Chess.com. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  11. Strydom, F.P. (December 5, 2019). "FIDE Ethics Commission" (PDF) (Press release). FIDE. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  12. Grahn, Lars (2000). "SSKK 60 år - en av världens starkaste jubileumsturneringar" (PDF). Korrschack (in Swedish). Vol. 48 no. 1. p. 4. ISSN 1403-5057. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  13. van Vugt, Wim (August 27, 2003). "Freedom, inequality or brotherhood?". The Campbell Report. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
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