Chess player caught cheating with phone during tournament

A Latvian-Czech chess player was “caught red-handed using his phone during a game.” Image: Unsplash

STRASBOURG, France — The International Chess Federation says it has suspended a player at a tournament in France after the man was “caught red-handed using his phone during a game.”

The organization said Friday on Twitter that all the evidence in the case of Igors Rausis had been sent to its ethics committee and that it was “determined to fight cheating in chess.”

Rausis is a 58-year-old Latvian-Czech player who won the grandmaster title in 1992 and has over the years represented Latvia, Bangladesh and the Czech Republic.

Federation Director-General Emil Sutovsky wrote on Facebook that Rausis had long been under suspicion for cheating and that catching him was “merely the first shot” in a years-long battle against cheating.

Sutovsky said the wrongdoing was also reported to French police. NVG

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