Cheater Caught At German Championships
The 82nd German Chess Championship in Bonn had an exciting finish when Igor Khenkin took the title on a superior tie-break score from Jan Gustafsson after both had finished on 6.5/9.0.
The format was a nine-round Swiss event with 34 players taking part. The competition started 26 May and finished on 3 June.
The separate women's nine-round Swiss competition was won by Sarah Hoolt who achieved a score of 7.5/9.
All the games from the championships can be found at the official website here. A selection of the new champions' games are below.
The Champion: Igor Khenkin won his first German Championship
Sadly, the end of the tournament was marred by the disqualification of a player for cheating. An FM was discovered to have consulted a chess program on his mobile phone when visiting the toilet during the game.
Such cheating is difficult to stop, so surely the punishment should be severe to act as an effective deterrent. Even if phones and similar devices are banned from the playing area, a player could consult a hidden device when he left the room (or be aided by an accomplice). What is the answer?
| Name | Elo | Pts | TB | |
| 1 | Khenkin, Igor | 2488 | 6.5 | 48.0 |
| 2 | Gustafsson, Jan | 2480 | 6.5 | 47.5 |
| 3 | Fridman, Daniel | 2471 | 6.0 | 48.5 |
| 4 | Buhmann, Rainer | 2462 | 6.0 | 46.5 |
| 5 | Gschnitzer, Oswald, Dr | 2437 | 6.0 | 42.5 |
| 6 | Stern, René | 2498 | 5.5 | 50.0 |
| 7 | Huschenbeth, Niclas | 2450 | 5.5 | 44.0 |
| 8 | Siebrecht, Sebastian | 2425 | 5.5 | 44.5 |
| 9 | Seel, Christian | 2358 | 5.5 | 41.0 |
| 10 | Svane, Rasmus | 2442 | 5.0 | 44.5 |
| 11 | Tischbierek, Raj | 2421 | 5.0 | 45.0 |
| 12 | Jugelt, Tobias | 2407 | 4.5 | 42.5 |
| 13 | Kummerow, Heiko | 2399 | 4.5 | 43.0 |
| 14 | Rietze, Clemens | 2393 | 4.5 | 39.5 |
| 15 | Andre, Gordon | 2392 | 4.5 | 42.5 |
| 16 | Vatter, Hans-Joachim | 2382 | 4.5 | 43.0 |
| 17 | Bastian, Herbert | 2351 | 4.5 | 36.5 |
| 18 | Lubbe, Nikolas | 2346 | 4.5 | 35.0 |
| 19 | Krassowizkij, Jaroslaw | 2329 | 4.5 | 36.5 |
| 20 | Poetsch, Hagen | 2297 | 4.5 | 31.5 |
| 21 | Müller, Oliver C | 2431 | 4.0 | 41.5 |
| 22 | Mertens, Heiko | 2395 | 4.0 | 39.5 |
| 23 | Krause, Ullrich | 2344 | 4.0 | 34.0 |
| 24 | Dranov, Aleksandr | 2336 | 4.0 | 37.0 |
| 25 | Seger, Rüdiger | 2300 | 4.0 | 30.0 |
| 26 | Strache, Michael | 2413 | 3.5 | 40.5 |
| 27 | Molinaroli, Martin | 2379 | 3.5 | 38.5 |
| 28 | Bracker, Frank | 2356 | 3.5 | 37.5 |
| 29 | Zill, Christoph | 2337 | 3.5 | 33.0 |
| 30 | Kessler, Andreas | 2375 | 3.0 | 35.0 |
| 31 | Lederle, Vitus | 2337 | 3.0 | 31.0 |
| 32 | Pitschka, Claus | 2350 | 2.5 | 34.5 |
| 33 | Bindrich, Falko | 2426 | 2.0 | 41.0 |
| 34 | Natsidis, Christoph | 2363 | 0.0 | DISQ |
