'Toiletgate': Critic of chess grandmaster found dead was caught up in cheating scandal of his own

The Russian chess master accused by his peers of bullying Daniel Naroditsky, the U.S. grandmaster who was found dead last week, has himself been hit with unfounded cheating allegations in the past — a 2006 chess scandal that came to be known as “Toiletgate.”

The manager of Vladimir Kramnik’s opponent in that title match, Veselin Topalov, claimed the Russian was using the bathroom up to 50 times per match to surreptitiously look up chess moves on a computer — a charge that Kramnik’s manager hotly denied.

“It should also be mentioned that Mr. Kramnik has to drink a lot of water during the games” and likes to pace in the bathroom, Carsten Hansel added, according to news reports.

Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky dies at 29

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Kramnik eventually won the match and became the un