A top chess player is disqualified after a phone is found in a bathroom stall

A top chess player was kicked out of an event in Spain this week after being accused of cheating by using a phone during a bathroom break between moves.

The player, Kirill Shevchenko, was going to the bathroom for an extended period of time during the game, and while searching the stall the officials were using, found a phone, which could be used to get help from a computer program.

Mr Shevchenko, 22, a Ukrainian grandmaster who represents Romania in the competition, was kicked out of a team chess championship event in Spain on Monday after the phone was found.

On the phone found in the bathroom was a handwritten note: “Do not touch! This telephone is left so the owner can answer at night! According to the tournament's chief arbiter, Oscar Bruno de Prado Rodriguez, Chess.com reported.

The handwriting was similar to Mr Shevchenko's and the ink was similar to the pen he used, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported. The newspaper also reported that Mr. Shevchenko took several steps very quickly, without reflection, immediately after returning from the bathroom.

A day earlier a cleaner found another phone in the bathroom, which was turned over to authorities, according to El Mundo.

Mr Shevchenko played the first two rounds of the event to a draw, but both games turned into losses after he was kicked out.

Mr Shevchenko, who is currently ranked 69th in the world by the International Chess Federation, could not be reached for comment.

The Romanian Chess Federation said in a statement that Mr. Shevchenko denied the allegations and that it would support him unless there was more information.

“Such serious allegations must be supported by hard evidence and so far only circumstantial evidence has been disclosed,” the statement said. “We await the details of the case and will carefully study the supporting evidence.”

FIDE, known as the International Chess Federation, said in an email Wednesday that it had not received a report on the incident but expected it soon. It said it would investigate the incident and noted that it reserves the right to impose sanctions on Mr. Shevchenko if he is found guilty.

In the modern era, chess computers, easily accessible through mobile electronic devices, can play the game far better than any unaided human. The watershed moment in computerized chess came in 1997 when the world champion, Garry Kasparov, was defeated by a computer named Big Blue. And today's computers are still dramatically better.

Grandmasters regularly use these computers for training and match preparation, but over-the-board play is only considered a test of human intelligence.

Cheating is not unknown in the chess world. In the highest-profile incident in recent years, Magnus Carlsen, then world champion, lost to a player named Hans Niemann in a tournament in St. Louis in 2022 and then withdrew from the tournament.

Mr. Carlsen's sudden withdrawal, and a cryptic message he posted on social media, sparked speculation that he believed Mr. Neiman had cheated. When the two players faced off, Mr. Carlsen apparently resigned after a move in protest. Mr Neiman was never sanctioned, although he did admit to cheating in online matches a few years ago.

At the 2006 World Championships, Veselin Topalov claimed that Wladimir Kramnik cheated by citing frequent bathroom breaks. Officials responded by closing each man's private bathroom and forcing them to use a common facility. Mr. Kramnik lost a game in protest, but eventually won a close match.

At the 1978 World Championships, long before computers came close to besting humans, Viktor Korchnoi suggested that Anatoly Karpov could cheat with yogurt. Mr. Karpov was regularly given yogurt during matches; Mr. Korchnoi said he believed the taste of the yogurt or the timing of its distribution could signal some kind of move from Mr. Karpov's camp.

Finally it was ruled that curd could be delivered, but only at 7:15 precisely.