Chess #1360

A cheating scandal rocked chess last week. A Top 100 player, Igors Rausis, was caught looking at his mobile phone while playing at the Strasbourg Festival. The 58-year-old Latvian-Czech GM was an outlier, as the oldest man in the Top 100, with Elo 2686.

Rausis was a mid-level GM (Elo 2500-2550) for years. From 2013, he has ramped up his rating (perfectly legally) by playing much weaker players. Elo calculation requires convenient differential cut-offs.  There may be a massive gap (700-800 Elo) between opponents in open events. Elo calculations assume maximum differential of 400. The higher-rated player can gain a maximum of 0.8 Elo with a win, or lose much larger amounts if they lose, or draw. 

Rausis chose events carefully to beat much weaker players, to score 0.8 Elo per game and prize money. Demand for his services as a trainer-analyst increased as he ascended the Elo ladder. He's coached the Bangladesh Olympiad squad.

The risk factor for this strategy: draws or losses lead to sharp Elo reduction. But Rausis kept winning. He was on the Fide watch-list as a statistical anomaly. At Strasbourg, he was the only GM and highest-rated by over 300 Elo. He was found sitting (fully clothed) in the toilet, analysing on his mobile. For the uninitiated, a free Droidfish android engine, which runs on any smartphone, is stronger than Magnus Carlsen. Rausis is yet to be sentenced by Fide's Fair Play Commission — he faces at least a three-year ban. 

The new Fide dispensation is trying to gauge and stimulate public interest. It's set up a Nielsen Survey for global feedback at efs-survey.com/uc/REPUCOM/5017. It is encouraging knockouts since they are supposedly more interesting for fans. The Riga Grand Prix, which has Coke as one sponsor, is a KO. The semis lineup is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov versus Wesley So, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave versus Alexander Grischuk. Shakh has started with a classical win, while Grischuk-MVL drew their first game.

One potential problem with KOs is known and it was highlighted in the Altibox Norway, which introduced armageddon playoffs to resolve classical draws. If the players know there's a rapid/ blitz tiebreak to come, there is a greater likelihood of draws at the classical time-control. Altibox had a very high classical draw ratio. 

The Diagram, White to Play (White: Carlsen Vs Black: Grischuk, Altibox Norway 2019) is the launch-pad for attack. White played 25.d6! Rab8 26. Bd5 Nc5 27. Bg3 Ne6. [Black can't try 27.- Ne4 28. Bxe4 fe4 29. Rf7!! Kxf7 30. Qd5+ Kg6 31. Qxe4+ with a king-hunt]. 

Play continued 28. Rxf7 Rxd6 29. Bxd6 Qxd6 30. Qe3 Qb6 31. Qf3 Rf8 32. Rf1 Nd8 33. Rh5 Qc7 34. Qe4 (1-0). What did Grischuk miss? White won with simple moves.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player