Pretty crude way to cheat. Have to wonder what app he was using that would give him that much of an advantage. He will likely be slammed with at least a 3 year ban for the use of an electronic device. Was surprised to learn that a 15 year ban can be imposed for repeated offenses.
There is nothing of significance to note on the Georgian GM’s rating chart. After an initial surge in rating as a young player, his rating has been going sideways with only modest progress in the last two years. No big blips upward. He is 25 years old. Rated 2566. Received his GM title last year. He would not stand out at all at most tournaments, unless he did the hamhanded cheating by consulting a phone app in the bathroom every move!
This is the real toiletgate.
The story is being covered by other sources. The Dubai Open is a major event. Will wait to see what New in Chess has on the incident as they seem to be pretty good at digging out the details. This guy is really going to get hammered as an example and a warning to others inclined to cheat, if the details coming out are true.
This incident raises an interesting question. How good are the phone apps that play chess? Which one is the strongest?
With the new watch technology coming out which has access to computers and phones, we may have to check watches and apply rules to make players take their watches off and leave them in their rooms. This will increase the number of questions to TDs asking what time it is and when is the next round. 
Sadly it will also increase the cost of those device gatherings/monitoring–sigh?! The bad guys keep chipping away at our hobby.
Children are infinitely resourceful. When I taught in a school, I saw all manner of low tech and high tech ways to cheat on tests. Anticipating their next move was like playing a game of chess. All the time spent by them to get around the test, hide information, or relay info to friends would have been better spent on studying for the test. In the end, all of the peripheral stuff they did meant on test day they did not have to cheat. However, cheating was such an ingrained habit, and they believed everyone else was doing it, that they continued their efforts. They were also really bad at it. All too often they signaled they were doing something wrong with furtive movements, looking at me frequently, or being fidgety. On one test I had everyone put their phones in a box and shoes in a corner (good place to hide answers on the bottom or sides.) Each row got a separate test. Some tests were on different color paper or the sheets were rearranged, or even individual questions were in a different order. I did this before cameras on phones became ubiquitous. I would probably need scanners and jammers now.
When I think of ways to cheat at chess using high tech stuff, I usually ask the kids for ideas for what might work. As usual, they are really resourceful of thinking up ways to get around the rules. What Nigalidze did was laughably done. Middle school kids would know that is an easy catch. They are figuring out how they can use holograms or some form of GoogleGlass to project moves on glasses. Implants of chips is another idea. Still haven’t figured out how to get a link to Watson, but I wouldn’t put it past them. My robot guys think their whole area is fruitless for chess cheating, unless they create a clone player with a supercomputer inside. Too hard to make it human looking, yet.
The cheating scandal has hit some of the mainstream press. An article in the Washington Post noted that the Georgian GM uses an iPhone hidden in toilet paper behind a toilet. It was noted that his rise as a player coincided with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Mere coincidence? Maybe. The article goes on to mention other incidents of alleged high tech cheating over the last couple of decades. Funny quote from Nigel Short saying that with this technology even his dog could win a tournament.
One interesting fact from the Dubai Open. The first prize is only $12000. With all of the money and millionaires in the Persian Gulf region, one would have expected bigger prizes. This guy took a risk to ruin his career for a piece of $12000. His previous history is being scrutinized. It would not at all be unlikely for him to lose his GM title, his two Georgian Ch. titles, as well as being banned for 15 years from tournament play. The loss of all of the titles would jeopardize not only his livelihood but perhaps also his life.
There is a claim in the article by an English player that cheating has become pervasive in chess. Is that really true? It would be a tragedy for the game if tournament play was killed by technology and communication devices.
AFAIK, it’s never been the technology itself that tripped up these cheats. They either employed it too often and obtrusively in ways that left concrete evidence (the GM in the john, the guy with the radio “hearing aid”), they improved waaay too rapidly (the IM with the shoe-kit), or lacked the chess skill to bluff it out when challenged (the cat in the hat), etc.
It’s reasonable to assume that various folks have used the same technology sparingly and with discretion, maybe with clever confederates, and have been careful to stay under the radar. With technology, the confederates don’t have to be particularly skilled at chess. If all a cheat wants to do is juice the rating a hundred points to boost teaching creds…
One problem with this player who cheated is that nobody knows when he started cheating and how much the cheating inflated his rating. Say he is banned from tournament play for 3 years. When, and if, he decides to enter tournament play, should they let him start off at his existing rating, or should they drop him, say, a few hundred points and let his rating sort itself out?