Who is Raffael?

"Who is Raffael?" is, besides "When will I become a knight?", one of the most asked questions on the Chessbase server (playchess.com). Raffael is the handle of a very strong blitz-player on the server who, with a rating of 3425 (date June 30, 2009), tops the blitz rating-list and is by many considered to be the strongest blitz player on the server. He has a sharp tactical eye and a deep positional understanding that impresses the kibitzers who are following his games. He prefers to play 4m + 1s or 5m + 1s and so far he has played about 600 rated games and some unrated games (Download see below).


Chessbase knows his identity since Raffael has the server rank "Top-GM" (yellow king-symbol). This rank is only given to the best chess players in the world and the identity of players with this rank must have been validated by an admin. The criterions given by Chessbase are the following:


His FIDE-Elo therefore must be over 2675. However, no chess-fan knows the real name of Raffael and we can only speculate who he might be. Naturally some rumours arise and most people, impressed by his great online games, claim it is Garry Kasparov. Other people say it is Peter Svidler or another strong chess player. The reason why the name of Svidler comes into play is, that Raffael gives Saint Petersburg as the location in his profile, the birth town of Svidler. Also Svidler is a very strong Grandmaster who might be able to play in such a style.

In November 2006 the german chess site "Deep Chess", which isn't online anymore, claimed to have solved the mystery. By analysing the games they came to the conclusion it must be Svidler. After that, everybody was sure Raffael is Svidler. Susan Polgar wrote about it in her blog (Can you solve the mystery? November, 2006) and also, the Chessbase team wrote a short message on their website - without confirming or disproving the story. Unfortunately Svidler himself, two month later in January 2007, told in an german interview that he isn't Raffel.


Other people suggested that Raffael is Dimitry Jakovenko, a well kown strong blitz player, or even Bobby Fischer. However, it can't be Jakovenko because Raffael has played against Jakovenko already and it also can't be Bobby Fischer because he died on January 17, 2008 and Raffael continued to play online. The chess world is puzzled again.

Kasparov is Raffael!

Kasparov himself said in serveral interviews that he plays online chess and he also said he analyses with Fritz. In a speech he called himself "the highest rated kibitzer" talking of his online rating.

Holger Lieske, a playchess.com admin, did confirm Raffael was in the top 10 in the world (classical chess). "Was" could mean that the player doesn't play classical chess anymore and indeed, Kasparov retired from classical chess on March 13, 2005!

It's interesting to see what other strong player who played against him think. Here's what Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich writes in the foreword to his new book "The Chigorin Defence According to Morozevich": "[...] I played several matches on the Internet, using the handles 'Wanted' and 'Benefactor' [...] My games with the mysterious 'Raffael' on the Playchess site proved especially interesting. The handle of this player is concealed, but it is obvious that he is a very strong grandmaster, possibly even Kasparov himself. [...].". This also indicates strongly that Morozevich is "Trudodyr" (see below).

Let's see what Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, another very strong online blitz player who just defeated the reigning blitz world champion Magnus Carlsen in the BNB Bank Blitz-Tournament 2009 in Oslo, thinks. Nakamura himself has played a lot of blitz games against Raffael. In this Screenshot you can see what Nakamura (server handle: "Star Wars") thinks about the identity of Raffael:


A transcript of the chat-conversation:

Alexander_L (Zuschauer): raffael will avoid nakamura again <smiley>
Star Wars (Zuschauer): ok we shall see if Kasparov is willing to play rated
Ubiyca (Zuschauer): lol
Chesskid (Zuschauer): where is kasparov
Empire Chess (Zuschauer): i hope so
Chesskid (Zuschauer): and who is star wars....invanchuk?
Star Wars (Zuschauer): raffael is Kasparov
AdamAdamberto (Zuschauer): omg raffael is kasparov
AdamAdamberto (Zuschauer): -.-
Empire Chess (Zuschauer): kaspi = raffael
Top GM Game: Yaacovn-Raffael in room 'Main Playing Hall'
Yaacovn-Raffael, Ergebnis = 0-1

Grandmaster Falko Bindrich, under the handle "Endorphin", played some games against Raffael. His rating was over 3000 and later by Chessbase he was accused of cheating and his rating got deleted. His father Oswald Bindrich tried to refute the accusation (there never has been a real proof for cheating). Oswald Bindrich gave reaons why the deletion of the rating upsets his son. Only if you have a 3000-rating you can play against very strong Grandmasters online and improve your own play and opening repertoire in his opinion and he said his son played against Harikrishna, Mamedyarov, Raffael (Kasparov), Bologan and other strong Grandmaster. This idiciates he and his son, who has played against him, know that Raffael is Kasparov.

Also Valeri Lilov (server-handle: "Valeri Lilov" and "Tiger Lilov") on his website states Raffael is Kasparov: "At the end of the same year, in the one of the most popular chess servers - Playchess.com I made a record in the history of chess on the internet as I managed to defeat in match one of the strongest computer chess engines in the world - Hiarcs 11.1 (at a time control of 1 min. + 0 sec. per move - Bullet chess) with a total score of 4 wins and 3 losses. In the same month I also managed to win a game (in Blitz 4 min. + 1 sec. per move) against the strongest chess player on the earth - Garry Kasparov (who plays with the nickname 'Raffael' on Playchess.com)."

Now, we have another strong grandmaster who gives us his opinion - Grandmaster Gadir Guseinov (server handle: GGuseinov):


Since it is hard to read the chat, here is a chat-transcript:

Misha Tal 2 (Observers): according to his playing style, it might be kasparov
Blitzzmaster (Observers): who is Raffael?
Lars Bernhofen (Observers): <smiley>
GGuseinov (Observers): GK
Humck_87 (Observers): <smiley>
Arturchix (Observers): Who is GK?
Dovertome (Observers): I suspect it to be fritz itself, or possibly alekhine
Opitz (Observers): Finally there is this famous question
PersianGuy (Observers): alekhine's ghost
Lars Bernhofen (Observers): the day will come and holger will say that he is
raffael... and all will be very sad *running away*
Opitz (Observers): Who is Holger? <smiley>
Blitzzmaster (Observers): Raffael
PersianGuy (Observers): nice move
GGuseinov (Observers): i asked VK, he said it's GK
Arturchix (Observers): its GK

In September 2009 Kasparov and Karpov played a rapid chess match in Valencia, Spain. While one of the games was broadcastet live on playchess, Raffael logged in and watched this game. You might think it can't be Kasparov then but if you think about it further you will agree, that his daugher or wife might have great interest to see how he playes and so she might have been logged in with his account to see how he is doing. Note that Raffael didn't play any games at this time, but instead was just kibitzing.



I have a database with 323 games of Raffael. You can download this games here: Raffael Database (PGN). The games of Kasparov and Raffael show similarities in the openings. In one game they actually played the same moves till move 16.

[Event "5m + 1s, unrated"]
[Date "2007.09.02"]
[White "Trudodyr"]
[Black "Raffael"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e6 7. Be3 b5 8. Qd2
Nbd7 9. g4 h6 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. h4 b4 12. Na4 Qa5 13. b3 Nc5 14. a3 Rc8 15.
Qxb4 Qc7 16. Kb1 Nfd7 17. Nb2 d5 18. Qc3 dxe4 19. b4 Nf6 20. bxc5 Nd5 21. Qb3
Bxc5 22. Bb5+ Kf8 23. Nxe6+ fxe6 24. Bxc5+ Qxc5 25. Bc4 Rc6 26. Bxd5 Rb6 27.
Bxb7 Rxb3 28. cxb3 Ke7 29. Bxe4 Qxa3 30. Rhe1 Kf6 31. Bd3 Rc8 32. Bc4 Rxc4 33.
bxc4 a5 34. Rd3 Qb4 35. Rde3 a4 36. Rxe6+ Kf7 37. g5 hxg5 38. hxg5 1-0

[Event "RUS-The World, Moscow"]
[Date "2002.09.11"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Kasparov, Garry"]
[WhiteElo "2755"]
[BlackElo "2838"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. g4 h6 8. f3 b5
9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. h4 b4 12. Na4 Qa5 13. b3 Nc5 14. a3 Rc8 15. Qxb4
Qc7 16. Nxc5 dxc5 17. Qa4+ Nd7 18. Ne2 c4 19. Bf4 Qc6 20. Kb2 Qxa4 21. bxa4 Be7
22. Nc3 Bf6 23. Be2 Nb6 24. e5 Be7 25. a5 Nd5 26. Bd2 f6 27. Nxd5 Bxd5 28. Bc3
fxe5 29. Bxe5 O-O 30. Rh3 Rc5 31. f4 Rb5+ 32. Ka2 Rxa5 33. Kb2 Rb5+ 34. Kc1 Ra5
35. Kb2 Rb5+ 1/2-1/2

[Event "5m + 1s, rated"]
[Date "2007.08.06"]
[White "Raffael"]
[Black "Muisback"]
[WhiteElo "3257"]
[BlackElo "3138"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8.
e5 Ng8 9. f4 Nh6 10. Qf3 O-O 11. O-O-O d5 12. h3 Qa5 13. g4 f6 14. exf6 Bxf6
15. Bd4 e5 16. Bf2 Bg7 17. Qe2 Rxf4 18. Bg3 Rf8 19. Bxe5 Re8 20. Bc7 Rxe2 21.
Bxa5 Re8 22. Na4 Nf7 23. Bc3 Bxc3 24. Nxc3 Nd6 25. Bd3 Be6 26. Na4 Kg7 27. Nc5
Bf7 28. Rde1 Rad8 29. g5 d4 30. b3 Bd5 31. Rhg1 Nf7 32. h4 Ne5 33. Be4 a5 34.
Rgf1 Bxe4 35. Rxe4 Rd5 36. Na4 d3 37. c4 Rdd8 38. Nc5 h6 39. Kd2 hxg5 40. hxg5
a4 41. Kc3 d2 42. Rd1 axb3 43. axb3 Nf3 44. Rxe8 Rxe8 45. Nd3 Kf7 46. b4 Ke7
47. Rf1 Kd7 48. Nc5+ Kc7 49. Rd1 Re5 0-1

[Event "Eurotel Trophy, Prague"]
[Date "2002.05.01"]
[White "Kasparov, Garry"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[WhiteElo "2838"]
[BlackElo "2711"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8.
e5 Ng8 9. f4 f6 10. Bd4 Qa5 11. Qd2 fxe5 12. fxe5 c5 13. Be3 Bxe5 14. Bc4 Nf6
15. O-O Ba6 16. Bxa6 Qxa6 17. Bxc5 d6 18. Rae1 O-O 19. Bd4 Bxd4+ 20. Qxd4 e5
21. Qd3 Qxd3 22. cxd3 Rab8 23. b3 Kg7 24. Rc1 Rfc8 25. h3 a5 26. g4 h6 27. Kg2
Rxc3 28. Rxc3 Nd5 29. Rc6 Ne3+ 30. Kf2 Nxf1 31. Kxf1 a4 32. bxa4 Rb1+ 33. Ke2
Rb2+ 34. Ke3 Rxa2 35. Rxd6 Rxa4 36. Re6 Ra2 1/2-1/2

[Event "4m + 1s, rated"]
[Date "2007.09.02"]
[White "Raffael"]
[Black "Endorphin"]
[WhiteElo "3238"]
[BlackElo "3125"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O
O-O 9. Kh1 b6 10. Be3 Bb7 11. f3 Nbd7 12. a4 Qc7 13. Rf2 h5 14. Bf1 h4 15. Rd2
Nh5 16. Nc1 f5 17. exf5 Rxf5 18. Bd3 Rff8 19. Be4 Ndf6 20. Nd5 Nxd5 21. Bxd5+
Bxd5 22. Rxd5 h3 23. Ne2 hxg2+ 24. Kxg2 Nf6 25. Rd2 Qc6 26. Ng3 d5 27. Bg5 Ng4
28. fxg4 d4+ 29. Kh3 Bxg5 30. Re2 Qh6+ 31. Kg2 Be3 32. Qd3 Rf4 33. Qc4+ Kh8 34.
Rf1 Rxg4 35. Qd5 Re8 36. Qd7 Qg6 37. Qf5 Kh7 38. Qxg6+ Kxg6 39. h3 Rf4 40. c3
Rc8 41. cxd4 Bxd4 42. Rxf4 exf4 43. Ne4 Rc1 44. Kf3 Rf1+ 45. Kg4 f3 46. Rd2 f2
47. Nxf2 Bxf2 48. Rd6+ Kh7 49. a5 Bc5 50. Rc6 Rf6 51. Rxf6 gxf6 52. axb6 Bxb6
53. Kf5 Kg7 54. h4 Kf7 55. h5 Be3 56. Ke4 Bh6 57. Kf5 Bc1 0-1

[Event "PCA/Intel-GP, New York"]
[Date "1995.06.22"]
[White "Kasparov, Garry"]
[Black "De Firmian, Nick E"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[BlackElo "2590"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O
O-O 9. Kh1 Nbd7 10. a4 b6 11. f3 Bb7 12. Be3 Qc7 13. Rf2 Rad8 14. Bf1 Nc5 15.
Rd2 h6 16. Nxc5 dxc5 17. Bc4 Nh5 18. Nd5 Bxd5 19. Rxd5 Bg5 20. Bg1 Nf4 21. Rxd8
Rxd8 22. Qe1 a5 23. Rd1 Kf8 24. Bf2 Rd6 25. h4 Be7 26. Rxd6 Qxd6 27. g3 Ne6 28.
c3 g5 29. h5 g4 30. fxg4 Bg5 31. Kg2 Ke7 32. Qe2 Qd2 33. Qxd2 Bxd2 34. Bxe6
Kxe6 35. Kf3 Kd6 36. Ke2 Bc1 37. Kd3 Kc6 38. Be1 Bg5 39. Kc4 Be3 40. b4 cxb4
41. cxb4 axb4 42. Bxb4 Bc1 43. Bf8 Bg5 44. Bg7 f6 45. Bh8 Kd6 46. Kb5 Kc7 47.
Bg7 Kb7 48. Bf8 Kc7 49. Be7 Kd7 50. Bb4 Be3 51. g5 fxg5 52. g4 Ke6 53. Kc6 Bd4
54. Bd6 1-0



This is a list of Raffael's opponents with a server rating of 3000+.
The identities of "War games", Trudodyr, dreamtheater, Avtosh-gagash, Lacetti and HarryPotter2 are yet unkown.

Arres (Shakhriyar Mamedyarov)
Star Wars (Hikaru Nakamura)
War games
Trudodyr (probably Alexander Morozevich)
Vataros (Zoran Jovanovic)
Hiarcs 10 (Engine)
Jakovenko (Dimitry Jakovenko)
Gashimov (Vugar Gashimov)
Margency (Mert Erdogdu)
dreamtheater
Lukiano (Luka Paichadze)
OlegSpirin (Oleg Spirin)
Zhigalko Sergei (Sergei Zhigalko)
Muisback (Rauf Mamedov)
Avtosh-gagash
Lacetti
AlexanderMagnus (Georg Meier)
HarryPotter2
Endorphin (Falko Bindrich)
Fastplayer (Ian Nepomniachtchi)

The identity of Trudodyr, against which Raffael has played the most online-games by far, is yet unkown. Trudodyr has the server-rank "Top GM". As his first name he gives "Alex" and as country he gives "Russia" in his profile. So, some rumours claim that Trudodyr is Alexander Morozevich and also in his book "The Chigorin Defence According to Morozevich" Morozevich says he had played a lot of games against Raffael.

The real name of the player "War games" is also unkown. Some people think it is Peter Leko. A user-question on Leko's website ("Do you play under the Nick War games on the Fritzserver?") hasnt't been answered. Note that "War games" has not been confirmed as a "Top GM" by chessbase (no yellow king-symbol). But that is not supposed to mean anything, since Leko could just prefer to not even give his identity even to chessbase.



Finally, we can not say for sure who Raffael really is, but when we take into account all those facts, the games, the opinions of grandmaster-collegues and the interviews of Kasparov himself, it's safe to say that Raffael is Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, the 13th World Champion!


Leave a comment with your opinion and your thoughts!