A chess grandmaster’s career is in the crapper after officials flushed out a smartphone he hid in a toilet to cheat during an international tournament.
Georgian champ Gaioz Nigalidze was thrown out of the Dubai Open after his opponent, Armenian Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian, suspected that his frequent runs to the john were prompted not by the call of nature, but cries for help from a chess app, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The disgraced grandmaster, whose social-networking account was logged onto the phone, had his moves analyzed by the app. Nigalidze faces a 15-year ban for his wrong move.
“Nigalidze would promptly reply to my moves and then literally run to the toilet,” Petrosian said after Saturday’s match. “I noticed that he would always visit the same toilet partition, which was strange, since two other partitions weren’t occupied.”
Petrosian said he alerted the chief arbiter about his suspicions.
“After my opponent left the very toilet partition yet another time, the arbiters entered it,” he said. “What they found was the mobile phone with headphones. The device was hidden behind the pan and covered with toilet paper.”
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