Igors Rausis has been stripped of his Grandmaster status and banned for six years by the international Chess Federation after admitting cheating ©Wikipedia

A Latvian-born chess player has been stripped of his status as a Grandmaster and banned from the sport for six-years, after admitting he used a mobile telephone during games and also fixing one of his matches.

Igors Rausis confessed to the cheating when he appeared before the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Ethics Commission.

The 58-year-old, now representing the Czech Republic, was caught cheating in a tournament in Strasbourg in July, after which he admitted to the transgression and announced his immediate retirement from chess.

At a hearing of the FIDE Ethics Commission, Rausis admitted "cheating on four different occasions, in three instances by using his mobile phone and in the other instance by pre-arranging the result of a game".

Before this, he had been oldest player ranked among FIDE's top 100 players.

Rausis had been awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, and won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1995. 

He represented Bangladesh from 2003 to 2007, when he switched to the Czech Republic.

The Ethics Commission decided that Rausis will be allowed to continue playing correspondence or online chess and can still work as a private coach as long as he is not involved in official FIDE events.