Cheating in chess

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Tim Spanton
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Tim Spanton » Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:42 am

Really fascinating interview with Igors Rausis at ChessBase:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/how-to-qu ... n-one-move
Full of dynamite quotes

https://beauchess.blogspot.com/

NickFaulks
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:45 am

Tim Spanton wrote:
Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:42 am
Full of dynamite quotes.
Doesn't really answer any questions, though. Like what was he doing and why was he doing it.
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JustinHorton
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:51 am

A question I have is, why can't Chessbase reproduce Latvian diacritics without it looking like they're cutting and pasting using paper and glue?
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Aug 23, 2019 11:32 am

NickFaulks wrote:
Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:45 am
Like what was he doing and why was he doing it.
You can certainly improve your rating by studying openings etc. Even more so if you do it whilst the game is in progress. Pity they didn't ask what the story was about all those sacrifices against Keith several years ago as to whether he made it up over the board, or whether it was a result of having the position in an earlier games followed by working on the position.

Matt Bridgeman
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Matt Bridgeman » Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:01 pm

Reading between the lines you get the sense he's lived something of a transient life. It sounds like he was not as warmly received by the Czech players and hierarchy as he hoped, and perhaps this is what set off set him off on the road to ruin in the end. I don't think you'll ever get him to say much beyond having a phone in his hand in that moment.

John McKenna

Re: Cheating in chess

Post by John McKenna » Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:25 pm

This is how I read it between the lines (thanks to Chessbase) -
Andris Tihomirovs: Let’s go through the initial phase of your biography. You’re from Ukraine?

Igors Rausis: I was only born there. I believe that Sevastopol was never Ukraine. I grew up in Sevastopol. But I was born in Luhansk Oblast in 1961.
So, Rausis, born a Soviet citizen now most probably regards himself as an émigré Russian, definitely not Ukrainian. [We all know about Sevastopol in Crimea. Luhansk is a breakaway (from Ukraine) People's Republic - a puppet creation of the puppet master Putin.]
... When did you move to Latvia?

In the first Latvian championship, I finished second to last. That could have been in 1985...
So, Rausis moved to a place that had been swallowed up by the USSR in the post WWII division of Europe into West/East.
How did your chess career develop in Latvia? How did you become a grandmaster?

From 1986 to 1988, I spent two years studying in Moscow at the Supreme Coaches’ School... I obtained the title of USSR Master... and we visited Yugoslavia. In just my second tournament, I made it to International Master...
So, Rausis' chess career began to develop in Moscow and he became an IM playing just two international tournaments.
How was your career affected by the collapse of the USSR?

... I think I was awarded the title of IGM in 1992. But then the USSR collapsed... We were driven out onto the streets from the Riga Chess School...
So, at the start of 1992 IGM Rausis hits the street, running -
... I started organising my pupils’ trips to the West; we visited Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and other countries...

How did you end up in Bangladesh?

When a cross was erected over my chess career in Riga... They were tough times — salaries were tiny... it was logical that I left the chess school...
So, Rausis went West, then far to the East...
... At first, I was a private coach in Southern Germany.... the chess federation in that country also paid me officially. I was able to travel. I worked in Bangladesh where I became the national coach... It was interesting in Iran and in Egypt too...
So, wanderlust satiated, Rausis returned to Europe, via N. Africa...
How did you arrive in the Czech Republic?

In 2006, I also worked in Tunisia and there I received a letter from my fellow students from my Moscow days. One of them... told me how good things were in the Czech Republic.
So, our oblivious hero goes to the country famous for its springs - the Prague Spring of 1968 being, perhaps, the most famous.
What did you do in the Czech Republic as a chess player?

I arrived in a small inhabited place... not far from Austria. I did a little coaching and started competing as a professional chess player.
So, a little coaching in a small habitation, which begs the following question -
Can you make a living in chess by playing in tournaments?

Only by playing […at elite level]. There was not enough money at the level where I was. But one can make a living coaching, organising trips and doing various things...
I don’t speak Czech and I was older than anyone in the Czech team... I was among the ten best Czech players. These ten are awarded the federation’s money. For twelve years, I didn’t receive a copeck from them. I totally understand them and don’t want to complain.
So, Rausis - by now the creaking travelling coach - begins to feel his age, and in order to maintain his coaching position and secure invitations, with 'conditions', to tournaments is impelled to reluctantly look to his phone for support.

The whole progression described in the interview is flawed both logically and spiritually - the trials and tribulations of a tortured Russian, nay, human soul. For did not, Peer Gynt, the fictional, but fully human, representation of restless male existence, travel through his world in similar fashion!?
Peer, we shall meet, again, at the last crossroads, and then we shall see if... I'll say no more."
(Ibsen's Peer Gynt )
Last edited by John McKenna on Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Roger Lancaster
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Roger Lancaster » Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:12 pm

Psychologically interesting, I thought, that he referred to not having received a copeck/kopek from the Czech federation when, of course, it's the Russian national currency (100 kopeks = 1 rouble) rather than the Czech.

John McKenna

Re: Cheating in chess

Post by John McKenna » Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:48 pm

Perhaps he's harbouring a grudge against the hands that don't feed him.

At least he has some solace in his family, or so it appears.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:32 pm

Roger Lancaster wrote:
Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:12 pm
Psychologically interesting, I thought, that he referred to not having received a copeck/kopek from the Czech federation when, of course, it's the Russian national currency (100 kopeks = 1 rouble) rather than the Czech.
Could just be that that's the expression of course. Was the interview conducted in Russian?

(For the little it's worth, when speaking in English I sometimes say "not a penny" even if the currency I refer to isn't sterling.)
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

Roger Lancaster
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Roger Lancaster » Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:19 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:32 pm
Was the interview conducted in Russian?
The ChessBase article is a translation of the Latvian but, although both interviewer and interviewee were fluent in that language, it's extremely probable that both also spoke good Russian. So the interview could indeed have been conducted in Russian, translated into Latvian for the written page, and the Latvian version then translated into English. Your question is entirely legitimate as nuances, including choice of currency in the phrase I identified, could easily have been lost or adapted in the course of translation.

Jacques Parry
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Jacques Parry » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:33 am

Where a player has previously left the playing area (not the playing venue), on his own time but with the permission of the arbiter, does this justify the arbiter in subsequently interrupting the game, after further moves have been played, to ascertain whether the player has a phone?

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:58 am

Jacques Parry wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:33 am
Where a player has previously left the playing area (not the playing venue), on his own time but with the permission of the arbiter, does this justify the arbiter in subsequently interrupting the game, after further moves have been played, to ascertain whether the player has a phone?
It's a good question, and as the chief arbiter of the event in question, I suppose I'd better answer it. The idea that there might be anything untoward didn't cross my mind until your opponent raised it; once he had raised it, I thought it appropriate to respond to his concerns.

Jacques Parry
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Jacques Parry » Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:31 pm

Thanks, Jack. My purpose in posting was not to give you a hard time, but to find out whether others agree with me that an arbiter should not interrupt the game to check that a player is not cheating unless there are grounds to suspect that he may be. The fact that he has left the playing area on his own time obviously does not constitute such grounds if he had permission to do so: on the contrary, how likely is it that a player with a phone in his pocket would ask for permission? The arbiter might say "OK, but I just need to check your pockets first". I wasn't aware that my opponent had raised the matter (did he mention that he had just offered a draw?) but if there were no grounds for suspicion in the first place, I don't see how his raising it could constitute such grounds.

The fact of the interruption, plus my belief that it was unwarranted, certainly affected my concentration pretty badly. It may or may not be coincidence that shortly afterwards I decided to move one rook and picked up the other one, which is unusually inept even by my standards!

Ian Thompson
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Ian Thompson » Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:10 pm

Jacques Parry wrote:
Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:31 pm
to find out whether others agree with me that an arbiter should not interrupt the game to check that a player is not cheating unless there are grounds to suspect that he may be.
Unless he has proof, not just suspicions, I wouldn't expect him to interrupt the game even then. I'd expect him to wait and watch until a suitable non-disruptive moment arose.

Jacques Parry
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Re: Cheating in chess

Post by Jacques Parry » Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:14 pm

In fairness, the interruption came immediately after my opponent had made a move. I don't know whether you'd call that a non-disruptive moment: it didn't seem that way.

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