DISGRACE

Chess Grandmaster Caught Cheating With Cellphone During Tournament

“I simply lost my mind yesterday,” the player said.

Chess grandmaster Igors Rausis was on a staggering winning streak until he was caught cheating with his cellphone in a bathroom. The 58-year-old grandmaster was declared No. 53 of the top 100 players worldwide in July. But during a tournament in Strasbourg, France, Rausis was photographed sitting fully clothed on a toilet, looking at a smartphone during a match. “It is a cheater, who reached that high in a very suspicious and questionable way, and now was caught,” Emil Sutovsky, director general of the World Chess Federation wrote in a post online. It is unclear how the photo was taken and officials at the tournament denied planting the camera. “I simply lost my mind yesterday,” Rausis told Chess.com. “At least what I committed yesterday is a good lesson, not for me—I played my last game of chess already.” Rausis admitted he used chess software on his phone. He has been reported to the French police.