A US website claims to have uncovered the secret of Vladimir Kramnik's controversial toilet visits during his game with Bulgarian chess king Vesselin Topalov.

The site chessninja.com has published a photo of a high-tech loaded restroom that has been circulating in the Internet for years, explaining that Kramnik may have easily hooked up his toilet too.

The scandal at this unique contest, which pursued the unification of the world chess title, was triggered after the manager for Bulgaria's Topalov, Silvio Danailov, accused Russia's Kramnik of taking too many bathroom breaks. That was an apparent suggestion that he was secretly using a technical device or a computer program to help him with his moves, because the toilet is the only room without surveillance. As a result the secret of Kramnik's toilet has toyed with the mind of many chess fans ever since.

Despite the scandal, however, Kramnik continues using the same toilet and with the same regularity, according to Darik News sources.

The official score between the two is now 5:4, with three games to go. The first player to reach 6.5 wins will be pronounced the ultimate winner.

Fans define the events in the Kalmik Republic as an advertising trick initiated in order to raise greater public interest in the championship. There are rumours the two competitors have been paid by an additional sponsor in order to perform that theatrical play.