Bathroom Dispute Halts World Chess Championship !

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN

The world chess championship came to a halt today when Vladamir Kramnik, who had been locked out of his private bathroom after insinuations that he was cheating, refused to play and forfeited the fifth game of the match.

A day after a written protest by the team of Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria about the frequent bathroom breaks of Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the World Chess Federation (FIDE), which is organizing the match, locked the private bathrooms for both players and said they must use the same bathroom for the rest of the match.

The bathrooms had been the only part of the players’ private rest areas behind the stage where they are playing that was not subject to video surveillance by the match referees.

In filing the protest, Mr. Topalov implied that Mr. Kramnik might somehow be cheating when he was in the toilet. Before the protest, Mr. Kramnik led the match 3-1, with 6.5 points needed to win. The match is being played in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, a Russian republic on the Caspian Sea.

The rest can be read here.

Curtesy of http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/

& http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/sports/30chesscnd.html?ei=5094&en=
bf9e8b405118c22c&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner
=homepage&pagewanted=print

& http://chessbase.com/

TOPALOV vs KRAMNIK (Sept, 21 - Oct, 12)

NAME	FED	FIDE	RES	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
GM Vesselin Topalov	BUL	2813	2.0	0	0	½	½	1
GM Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2743	3.0	1	1	½	½	0