Isa Kasimi
Isa Kasimi | |
|---|---|
Rausis at the 2011 Winterthurer Schachwoche tournament | |
| Country | Soviet Union (until 1991) Latvia (1992–2002) Bangladesh (2003–2007) Czech Republic (2007–2020) FIDE (2020–2024) |
| Born | April 7, 1961 Komunarsk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR |
| Died | March 28, 2024 (aged 62) |
| Title | Grandmaster (1992, stripped in 2019)
International Master (2019) |
| Peak rating | 2686 (July 2019) |
| Peak ranking | No. 46 (April 2020) |
Isa Kasimi (April 7, 1961 – March 28, 2024), born Igor Kondylev and known as Igors Rausis until 2020, was a Latvian chess International Master. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, but the title was stripped away after he was caught cheating in 2019. He won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1995. He represented Bangladesh from 2003 to 2007, when he switched to the Czech Republic.
In July 2019, Kasimi was caught cheating in a Strasbourg tournament, after which he admitted to the transgression and announced his immediate retirement from chess. The Czech Chess Federation subsequently cancelled his membership, and the FIDE Ethics Commission stripped him of his Grandmaster title and gave him a six-year ban. At the time, he was the oldest player ranked among FIDE's top 100 players. Kasimi is featured as a key character in the Juhani Seppovaara novel Shakkimestari ("The Chess Master", 2024).