A Top Chess Player Is Disqualified After a Phone Is Found in a Bathroom Stall

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

The player, Kirill Shevchenko, had been going to the bathroom for extended periods during games, and officials searching the stall he had used found a phone, which could have been used to get help from a computer program.

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

The phone found in the bathroom had a handwritten note saying: “Don’t touch! This telephone has been left so the owner can answer it at night!” according to the tournament’s chief arbiter, Oscar Bruno de Prado Rodriguez, as reported in Chess.com.

The handwriting was similar to Mr. Shevchenko’s, and the ink resembled that in a pen he used, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported. The newspaper also reported that Mr. Shevchenko had made several moves very rapidly, seemingly without any reflection, immediately after returning from the bathroom.

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