Igor Rausis

Igor Rausis at the chess tournament 11th Winterthur Chess Week 2011
Association	Soviet Union (until 1991) Latvia (1992 to 2003) Bangladesh (2003 to 2007) Czech Republic (2007 to 2019)
Born	April 7, 1961 Kommunarsk , Ukrainian SSR
title	International Master (1990) Grand Master (1992 to 2019)
Current  Elo rating	2685 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2686 (July 2019)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Igor Rausis (born April 7, 1961 in Kommunarsk , Ukrainian SSR ) is a chess player .

Life and career as a chess player

Igor Rausis began his chess career in the Ukrainian autonomous republic of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, he went to the Latvian republic and played until 2003 for Latvia, whose championship he won 1995th From 2003 to 2007 he played for Bangladesh . He has been registered with FIDE for the Czech Republic since 2007 . Rausis received the grandmaster title in 1992. For the Latvian national team he played three times (in the years 1996 , 1998 and 2002 ) in the Chess Olympiad and in the team's World Cup 1993. Rausis was the coach of the national team of the United Arab Emirates , at the Chess Olympiad in 2008 he was coach of the national team of Bangladesh, in the Chess Olympiad 2010 he was the national coach of Algeria . In 1985 and 1986 he was one of Alexei Shirov's first coaches , and he also coached the U-20 junior world champion Ahmed Adly .

Rausis won or occupied top places in several tournaments: I. – III. Place in Saint Martin (1991), I. Place in Moscow (1992), I.–II. Place in Viernheim (1992), I. – III. Place in Las Palmas (1995), I.–II. Place in Gausdal (1995), 1st place in Enghien-les-Bains (1995), 1st place in Jyväskylä (1996), 1st place in Willsbach (1997), I.–II. Place in Gausdal (2000), I. – VII. Place in Cairo (2001), I.–IV. Place in Gausdal (2002), I. Place in Bad Bocklet (2002), I. Place in Lienz (2003), I. – III. Place in Bogny-sur-Meuse (2004), I – IV. Place in Esbjerg (2006), II – III. Place at the Keres Memorial in Tallinn (2008), 2nd place at the Alushta GM tournament (2008), 1st place in Uxbridge in 2009 and 2010 and 1st place at the Open in Dieppe 2010.

Rausis has been playing in the Czech Extra League since 2007 for BŠŠ Frýdek-Místek , interrupted by the 2011/12 season, in which he played for ŠK Labortech Ostrava . In the Austrian Bundesliga he was team champion with SK Advisory Baden , for whom he played from 2006 to 2009, in the 2007/08 season . In the German federal chess league he played in the 1998/99 season for SC Viernheim and later in the 2nd league for the second team of Hamburger SK , SV 03/25 Koblenz , SC Schwegenheim and from 2012 for Godesberger SK . In France he plays in the Nationale 1 for Orcher la Tour , with whom he played in the top division, the Top 16, until 2008. In Belgium he played in the 2004/05 season for the second team of KSK 47 Eynatten , in the 2008/09 season and again in the 2013/14 season for Cercle des Echecs de Charleroi , from 2009 to 2013 he played for KSK Rochade Eupen-Kelmis , with whom he played again in the 2015/16 season.

Elo development

Fraud allegations and retirement

It is noteworthy that he was able to increase his Elo rating from 2466 to 2686 in the period from 2010 to 2019. At the beginning of July 2019, he was number 53 in the world rankings and was the oldest player in the top 100 in the world. On July 11, 2019, a smartphone was found in the toilets of a chess tournament in Strasbourg , which could be assigned to Rausis. Rausis subsequently admitted that he had used the smartphone to analyze games in the current competition.

He announced that he would not play any more tournaments.

Immediately beforehand, he had reached 40th place in the live rating list, which is also updated between monthly releases after each game. It is unclear whether his stated increase in performance is due to regular fraud . Alternatively, it was discussed that he was exploiting a "loophole" in the rating system, in which significantly weaker opponents were raised to a (virtual) Elo level of 400 points below their own value. This means that victories against non-competitive players also result in a (very small) increase in Elo, which helps to significantly improve one's own rating when there are a large number of games.

On December 5, 2019, he was banned from the FIDE Ethics Committee for six years. In addition, the grandmaster title was withdrawn from him.

Game example

Rausis-McShane

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

End position after 41. Qxd6

In the following game, Rausis won with the white pieces in Hastings 1997/98 against today's British world-class player Luke McShane .

Rausis 1-0 McShane

Hastings, December 30, 1997

King's Indian Defense (Four Pawn Attack), E76

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f4 0–0 6. Nf3 Sa6 7. e5 Nd7 8. Be2 c5 9. exd6 exd6 10. 0–0 Re8 11. f5 cxd4 12. Nd5 Nc7 13. fxg6 hxg6 14. Bg5 Nf6 15. Nxf6 + Bxf6 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. Nxd4 Qg5 18. Bf3 Ne6 19. Bd5 Re7 20. Nf3 Qf6 21. Bxe6 Qxe6 22. Re1 Qf6 23.Rxe7 Qxe7 24. Qd4 Be6 25.b3 a6 26.a4 Rc8 27.Rd1 Bf5 28. Re1 Qc7 29. Qf6 Rf8 30. Nd4 Bc8 31. h3 Qd8 32. Re7 Qb6 33. Kh2 Qc5 34. Re4 b5 35. cxb5 axb5 36. Nxb5 Bb7 37. Rd4 Qc2 38.Rg4 Re8 39.Nxd6 Qc7 40.Rh4 Qxd6 + 41. Qxd6 1: 0

Correspondence chess

In the 1990s Igor Rausis was also active in correspondence chess ; since 1997 he has held the title of International Correspondence Chess Master.

Web links

Commons : Igor Rausis  - Collection of Images

• Replayable chess games by Igor Rausis on chessgames.com (English)
• Igor Rausis at the International Correspondence Chess Federation ICCF (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chess Players who changed federations in 2003 (English)
2. ↑ Chess Players who changed federations in 2007 (English)
3. ↑ Igor Rausis' results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
4. ↑ Igor Rausis' results at the World Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
5. ↑ Friday is free day in Dubai , accessed on October 15, 2011.
6. ↑ Squad of Algeria on chess-results.com, accessed on April 26, 2018 (English).
7. ↑ Alexei Schirow: Fire on Board, Shirov's Best Games. Everyman Publishers, 1996, p. 16.
8. ↑ 'The greatest Arab player since Stamma', accessed on October 15, 2011.
9. ↑ ChessBase Megabase 2008.
10. ↑ Individual Calculations: Rausis, Igor (English)
11. ↑ ChessBase Megabase 2011.
12. ↑ Archives. Tournament report November 2010 , accessed on October 13, 2011.
13. ↑ Igor Rausis' results in the Czech Extraliga on olimpbase.org (English)
14. ↑ echecs.asso.fr accessed on October 15, 2011 (French).
15. ↑ Numbers according to FIDE Elo lists. Data sources: fide.com (period since 2001), olimpbase.org (period 1971 to 2001)
16. ↑ FIDE: Official Statement
17. ↑ TAZ: Shit on the toilet
18. ↑ chess.com: GM Igors Rausis is accused of fraud
19. ↑ chess24.com
20. ^ FIDE Ethics Commission announces the sanctions against Igor Rausis , fide.com, December 5, 2019.