Время публикации: 12.04.2015 02:15 | Последнее обновление: 24.12.2015 13:04

He has been forfeited in the Dubai Open

A strong open tournament is taking place in Dubai, UAE these days. The field includes 22 players over 2600, while the top-rated participants are David Howell (2687), Vladimir Fedoseev (2674), Igor Kovalenko (2665), Tigran Petrosian (2660)...

The latter, an Armenian Grandmaster whose first and last name are same as those of the 9th World Champion, has become one of the two main heroes of the latest playing day. Petrosian was White against Georgian GM Gaioz Nigalidze (2566).

It's Tigran Petrosian himself who told our website what had happened:

"I was suspicious about my opponent already after the tournament in Al Ain in December, where we both had been taking part. Nigalidze won that tournament; during our game he would go to the toilet very often, as well as this time. However, in Al Ain I had no evidence, I could only make guesses. Today, my suspicions have been confirmed...



In our today's game, Nigalidze would promptly reply to my moves and then literally run to the toilet. Twice, I made my moves promptly as well, so that he couldn't leave, and he made mistakes on those occasions. Then I decided to keep an eye on him. I noticed that he would always visit the same toilet partition, which was strange, since two other partitions weren't occupied.

I informed the chief arbiter about my growing suspicions and asked him to keep an eye on Gaioz. After some time, the arbiter approached me and said that he had checked my opponent and found nothing. I asked him to check Nigalidze again, because I was already sure that something was wrong.

After my opponent left the very toilet partition yet another time, the arbiters entered it. What they found was the mobile phone with headphones; the device was hidden behind the pan and covered with toilet paper.

We both were sitting at the board, when the chief arbiter came up to Nigalidze and showed him the mobile phone, asking: "Is this yours?" Nigalidze blushed, got confused and couldn't say anything.

The arbiter forfeited him in the game. I went outdoors, and Gaioz approached me. I thought he was going to apologize, but he only asked me what was going to happen to him as a result."

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Gaioz Nigalidze was spoken of even before he became a Grandmaster. He sensationally won the Georgian Championship twice in a row, in 2013 and 2014, while both the times he was only # 9 in the starting rank list.

We have asked Gaioz to comment on the situation. His comment was brief: "Not everything is true in what Petrosian said".

UPD. Some additional facts have been published on the official website of the Dubai Open:

"When confronted, Nigalidze denied he owned the device, but officials opened the smart device and found it was logged into a social networking site under Nigalidze’s account. They also found his game being analyzed in one of the chess applications".



Photo - dubaichess.ae

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All the games played by Nigalidze in the Dubai Open can be replayed below. Before the game vs Tigran Petrosian, he had 4 points out of 5 and was among the nearest pursuers of the leaders. However, his name is already absent in the next round pairings.