Photo: Getty
Igors Rausis, a chess grandmaster who had climbed the sport’s ranking boards in recent years, admitted to cheating after a photo surfaced of him appearing to use his smartphone while in a bathroom stall during a tournament.
According to theWashington Post, Rausis, 58, is the oldest person to be ranked in the top 100 chess players worldwide. In this month’s ranking, he came in atnumber 53— making it all the more shocking when fans of the “gentlemen’s sport” learned he had cheated.
“We will make all necessary efforts to successfully fight cheating, and we are going to make punishments for violations more severe,” the statement concluded. “However, we urge the entire chess community to respect the law and let us work diligently for the benefit of chess.”
Rausis seemingly admitted that he had cheated toChess.com, saying, “I simply lost my mind.”
FIDE’s Fair Play Commission Secretary Yuri Garrett wrote in a recentFacebook postthat the “Fair Play Commission has been closely following a player for months,” apparently a reference to Rausis.
“The final result is finding a phone in the toilet and also finding its owner. Now the incident will follow the regular procedure and a trial will follow to establish what really happened,” he wrote.
source: people.com
