Brighton's Echoes: When Even A Grandmaster Struggles....

Igor Rausis

Igor Rausis (born April 7, 1961, in Komunarsk, Ukrainian SSR) is a Latvian chess grandmaster who originates from Ukraine. He was Latvian champion in 1995. From 2003 to 2007 he represented Bangladesh but from 2007 he has played for Czech Republic.

Rausis played for Latvia in Chess Olympiads:

• In 1996, at second board in the 32nd Chess Olympiad in Yerevan (+2, =8, -2);

• In 1998, at third board in the 33rd Chess Olympiad in Elista (+2, =8, -2).
• In 2002, at second board in the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled (+1, =1, -1).

Rausis played for Latvia in World Team Chess Championship:

• In 1993, at first reserve board in Lucerne (+0, =2, -2).

In the 2008 Chess Olympiad, Rausis was Bangladesh chess team coach but in 2010 he became Algeria chess team coach.

This information I have borrowed from Wikipedia.

Last week Igor Rausis took part in the Brighton International chess tournament. 
He "suffered" two loses at the very beginning of the tournament in the rounds 1 and 2, which were followed by two draws, so before the round 5 he had 1 point out of 4! You can imagine what such a result can do with the psyche and ego of any player not only GM! But I was watching him closely, hoping that I can learn something, and I really could. It was amazing how much energy he had spent to focus himself on every single game from round 5 on, how stubbornly he sat at the table, he remained focused, focused, focused, ..., and kept analysing, analysing and analysing. Having seen that I realized that there are certain qualities which separates "us", the ordinary mortals, from "them" who are more successful in the game of chess!

Alex Longson

His first "victim" on his path back into the business became Alex Longson. A nice British guy who is rated 2281 at the moment, but Igor says he is much stronger than that. He also praised his knowledge of opening theory...
The game itself was rather messy! Igor started with 1.Nf3 but the game quickly went on into the Semi-Slav and Alex lured Igor into Moscow variation. Igor was not interested and he retreated his Bishop on h4 first and then on g3. Finally he pushed h-pawn forward which is sort of modern treatment of openings. And what happened later was an awful mess on the chess board and you can see it.

GM Rausis finally finished on the 5th place making 5 points out of 9. After such a terrible beginning not bad result whatsoever.

Rnd	Table	Pno	Name	Flags	Fed.	Rating	Score opponent	Score player	BH	SB	TPR	W-We total	W-We per game	Colour	Float	Result
1	4	5	FM Bigg, Andrew J		ENG	2304	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0	+0.00	-0.75	b		0
2	2	1	IM Rudd, Jack		ENG	2300	1.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	1569	-0.75	-0.26	w		½
3	5	7	Willmoth, Robert F		ENG	2154	0.0	0.5	3.0	0.75	2109	-1.01	-0.38	b		½
4	1	10	FM White, Michael J R		ENG	2229	2.0	1.0	4.5	1.25	2128	-1.39	-0.83	b		0
5	5	2	Longson, Alexander		ENG	2281	1.5	1.0	10.0	2.0	2054	-2.22	+0.22	w		1
6	2	3	FM Sowray, Peter J		ENG	2367	3.0	2.0	14.0	4.0	2182	-2.00	-0.18	b		½
7	4	9	IM Vuilleumier, Alexandre		SUI	2359	3.0	2.5	19.5	6.25	2216	-2.18	+0.31	w		1
8	3	8	Ueti, Silvio Shigueo		BRA	2150	1.0	3.5	25.0	10.25	2285	-1.87	-0.39	b		½
9	3	4	FM Croad, Nicolas		NZL	2307	6.5	4.0	29.5	13.0	2268	-2.26	+0.25	w		1
Total								5.0	40.0	21.5	2315	-2.01