Attention Cheaters !! If you play the move 0-0-0 (Queenside castling)with white ,then there is no need to cheat on that particular game really,because the result will automatically be 1-0 (White will win ),0-0-0 =1-0

There is a bigger problem here, the new generation has very low morality and no responsibility.

lol@" ...One toilet was occupied, but I didn’t hear any typical ‘toilet sounds’. "

This wasn't even the only scandal of the tournament: In round 4, GM Bindrich was two minutes late and tournament director / arbiter Ralph Alt (more widely known as judge in the Demjanjuk case) declared his game as lost. It's an official FIDE event, hence zero tolerance rules applied. Bindrich then dropped out of the tournament.

Two rounds earlier, Alt delayed the start of the round because another player wasn't yet present: FM Natsidis. As Siebrecht said in another interview, it would have been better for him (Natsidis) if he had quit the tournament at that stage ... .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73U-p_WkxZQ&feature=player_embedded [in German]

Oh well, there were also interesting games: the Evans gambit in Huschenbeth-Gustafsson was already mentioned by Chessvibes Openings. Later, "Gusti" played another remarkable game against 14-year old talent Rasmus Svane: after some complications (which, with best play, apparently should have favored the opponent) he managed to win an ending three minor pieces vs. queen (plus one pawn each) in "just" 44 moves. Carlsen couldn't win a similar ending against Shirov last year in Bilbao. I couldn't tell if Gustafsson played better than Carlsen, Svane played worse than Shirov (that's quite possible) or if a subtle difference (f-pawn against f-pawn in Bonn, e-pawn against f-pawn in Bilbao) changes the assesment of the position.

Naughty boy that Natsidis. Outlaw. But, at least he admitted his stupidity.

Rekthna would never do such a thing ! FIDE should ban these cheaters for Life !!!

Though I think cheating is overrated as a problem, this is indeed a clear case of it. But notice how risky is was for Natsidis, and how small the possible reward was: he was bound to get caught even against a less attentive opponent than Siebrecht.

Perhaps cheating in chess should be treated as a form of compulsive addiction rather than a clever way to improve one's rating ;-)

I prefer losing to winning by cheating.

It is encouraging to see the French Chess Federation imposing stiff penalties for cheating and raising the penalty bar for those who choose to appeal their ruling. I'm all for innocent until proven guilty, but the evidence in both cases is pretty overwhelming, not to mention admissions of guilt by at least some of the parties involved.

It would be nice to see some clear rules and strong penalties imposed by FIDE regarding this problem. I am also not opposed to hacking off one of the offender's fingers as an additional deterrent. Why not? :-)

The facts are........we really don't know how long he had this "chess program" on his phone! Maybe he has been using it for a long time! Hard questions need to be asked about this sort of thing because it keeps coming up, especially with more pda's and recordkeeping devices along with mobile phones with google and excellent memory capabilities........we will see more...rather than less of this sort of thing! Thank goodness his opponent counted his "bathroom breaks"...lol

Pretty obvious Natsidis cheated in the earlier rounds, probably earlier tournaments too.

Cheating needs to be punished harshly. Can't believe some commentators here are willing to give him a free pass because he confessed once he was caught.

Best to ban him 10+ years, strip his FM title, and forever black mark him as a cheater (between Natsidis and the French guys, we are going to need a new informant symbol for cheating). Additionally, Germany should give him a lifetime ban from their Championship.

Why am I not surprised he is studying to be a lawyer....

Online games-- who can tell? I played in blitz once, the opponent repeatedly disconnected from server on his move to gain time on the clock . Not content with just winning, he sent an insulting message at the end.

Ban his ass for 10yrs and call it a day.

I think is its very credible and plausible that if someone is cheating in the last round of the tournement the cheating also took place in the previous rounds.
Because why you would cheat in only one round?
So you should exclude these players because they really harm chess.
If you look at his rating from 2363 it is not liky at all that he made so many draws
against players with more than 2600 and 2400 rating.
So I am convinced he did cheated the hole tournement.
The feasibility in this case is for me sufficient proof.

Haha now I have seen the games I am very sure! Computer moves all the time!
Cheating all the games for sure!

I love the smell of CHEATING in the morning....
It smells... like VICTORY!

Banning for 2 years is really insufficient.Maybe 5 -7 years will be a good enough deterrent.Its quite horrible considering what sort of advantage access to software gives.

Here is a table if they re-score all his games as losses. The table might get scrambled:

1 Khenkin, Igor 7
2 Gustafsson, Jan 6½
3 Fridman, Daniel 6½
4 Gschnitzer, Oswald 6½
5 Buhmann, Rainer 6
6 Seel, Christian 6
7 Stern, Rene 5½
8 Huschenbeth, Niclas 5½
9 Siebrecht, Sebastian 5½
10 Tischbierek, Raj 5½
11 Vatter, Hans-Joachim 5½
12 Svane, Rasmus 5
13 Zill, Christoph 4½
14 Kummerow, Heiko 4½
15 Rietze, Clemens 4½
16 Andre, Gordon 4½
17 Jugelt, Tobias 4½
18 Lubbe, Nikolas 4½
19 Krassowizkij, Jaroslaw 4½
20 Bastian, Herbert 4½
21 Poetsch, Hagen 4½
22 Dranov, Aleksandar 4½
23 Mueller, Oliver 4
24 Mertens, Heiko 4
25 Krause, Ullrich 4
26 Seger, Ruediger 4
27 Strache, Michael 3½
28 Molinaroli, Martin 3½
29 Bracker, Frank 3½
30 Natsidis, Christoph 0

Btw, Feller is on the list of the Qualifiers for the World Cup 2011 on the FIDE site...

http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/5307-qualifier...

No sanctions at all or just a mistake?

I have the feeling that open chess tournaments are in a transitional period. With today's technology, chess programs on a mobile phone for example, very serious measures have to be taken by organizers and even those measures are not a guarantee for fair play. In a tournament with a limited amount of players mobile phones should be banned. If FIDE gave an automatic loss for a phone ring during a game why can't they do the same for a mobile phone at a table. In a few minutes we will see Federer vs Nadal, do you think either one of them consults his mail during rest periods?

In this new cheating affair, which is much less elaborate than the one in the Olympiads, the german player had the manhood to admit that he had cheated, unlike the french players. I wonder, how come the cycling world can perform blood tests and can examine team vehicles during a major competition and the chess organizers can do practically nothing.

What cellphone was he using? And what chess software? I'm just curious

To his credit, Natsidis acted decently once he had been caught by admitting and apologising. He could possibly have gotten away with it by not showing them the chess application with the position from the game.
This is very unlike the French case when Feller has acted very badly since the allegations came to light by throwing accusations back at the French federation and vehemently maintaining his innocence despite overwhelming evidence against him (acting like most sports cheats).
I agree with Arne Moll that it is an overrated problem. Cheating seems to provoke an emotive response in people leading to daily mailesque arguments, as can be seen by some of the comments above ('ban for life' etc) which are daft.

I very much doubt Nadsidis did this only in the last game and only during this event.
I remember him in the Mariembad tournament http://www.czechtour.net/history/2007-2008/marienbad/
after having lost the first round, he asked his second round opponent, through the arbiter (!!!) to draw his game without playing (he wasn't even present in the playing hall!). The arbiter insisted justifying this with the fact that if he drew he would have preserved his chances to make an IM norm.
His opponent refused to agree to a draw without playing and Nadsidis withdrew from the event.
These people seriously damage the game. Hope he stays away from Chess (and law, possibly) in the future.

Official tournament rules will have to adapt to growing popularity of smart phones. A good start would be mandatory registration: when they're signing up for a tournament, players should formally acknowledge the fact that they will be carrying a smart phone during gameplay, and also sign a guarantee that they do not posses any chess software on their phones. All players who would carry an unregistered smart phone during gameplay would get disqualified upon the discovery of the fact, as well as those with chess software on their phones.

This precaution would basically amount to a single signature at the start of the tournament. Perhaps it does not prevent systematic cheating - one can always simply not register the phone - but it does offer an additional discouragement. Formal rules strengthen the feeling of cheating, of doing something harmful. If a player binds himself to clean play with a signature, he will be much less prone to occasional cheating.

In every case, FIDE will have to react with new rules regarding open tournaments.

It really beats me why would anyone do this. One cannot possibly keep cheating to reach any considerable heights in chess hierarchy, and stealing a few additional points in a tournament or two seems just utterly pointless. Given that Natsidis admitted his deeds and expressed regret, it would be really interesting to hear his own thoughts on the matter.

Maybe just having to sign in and out of the tournament hall every time you go to the bathroom would deter some cheaters.

If you are cheating in a last round, when you already has enough points for a norm, then you probably also have cheated the rounds before...

Isn't Natsidis actually a Greek surname?

The majority of people being caught cheating have been those cheating in a really crude manner . IMHO The possibility of cheating has take n alot of the shine out of chess in these sort of tournaments .
I think slow play chess is on the way out because of it - a solution would be to stick to rapidplay games players not allowed to leave the table during the game

If you look at the picture of Natsidis, you can actually see a bulge in his left pocket.

I suppose that once a cheater has been exposed, then they are not going to cheat again since they know that their future games are going to be under scrutiny.A lengthy ban will be over the top but something like a 1 year seems o.k.I think that these cases of people cheating are very rear, the person would have had to be away from the board for many occasions.I have played in many chess tournaments and not once have I had to do a bowel motion, urinating is far more common.The total time that a person could be out of the playing hall should be limited and also the number of occasions.

"Three times, I made a move and it took 8-10 minutes for him to show up at the board. "

I tend to use the bathroom quite a lot (more than 3 times probably) sometimes when I am nervous or something during games. Does that mean I shall be suspected for cheating?