Chess championship rocked by restroom scandal

[ps1074]

Referees barred private toilets on Friday for the two grandmasters fighting for the world chess championship title in southern Russia after the contest was plunged into scandal over the frequency of one player's restroom breaks, ITAR-TASS news agency said.

Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov, who has yet to win a match after four attempts against Viktor Kramnik of Russia, threatened to quit the tournament entirely if organisers did not enact better controls on toilet breaks.

......

Videotapes showed that in each of the four matches played so far, Kramnik left the board and went into his four-room private rest area -- only the toilet in this area is not watched by video cameras -- 25 times, disappearing into the toilet on a number of these occasions.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=285407

Can you believe the dispute is over a f*cking toilet?

[idgiehkt]

1. "disappearing into the toilet"?????

what in the hell....

[edbermac]

2. Not over a toilet, about getting game information...

Could be getting info via cellphone device; maybe some book moves he doesn't know or game could be replayed over a computer and he's getting advice from it.

[ps1074]

3. I get that part

If it was me playing against an opponent who visits the toilet 25 times during a 4 hour game, I would be protesting too. It looks quite suspicious.

But what I don't get is why Kramnik refused to play today. They suggested another toilet open for both the players. He can still visit it 25 or 50 times. Why is he insisting on having his own toilet back? Looks fishy to me...

[MrCoffee]

4. I can totally believe it...chess wizards are crazy!

[cobalt1999]

5. probably dialing into "deep blue"

the grandmaster computer program.

[idgiehkt]

6. does anyone win anything without cheating anymore?

or did they ever? Maybe I'm just naive. In baseball and cycling it's drugs, in chess it's computer in the toilet or some such weirdness...