I’ve noticed at several tournaments I’ve played in the last 2 years, the same junior and father pair - the father sits in the bar or analysis room, with Fritz permanently running on his laptop, and the young lad at various intervals visits his father between moves… am I the only one who finds that a little bit suspect?
Yet, aside from a few players whispering about it, no one seems to question them that I've seen.
I can't condone Gabriel's use of force towards a junior, yet one can understand his anger, in the heat of the moment his actions are understandable if not justifiable.
It would be very hard for the arbiter to fully punish the young man, if he was given time to switch off and pocket the iphone / tablet - if he had, then I agree with the scenario given a few pages ago - it would have basically been a slap on the wrist, confiscation of the iphone and return to your game - the kid would have lost his next game, but that wouldn't have been a lot of good to Gabriel, forced to return to his computer-aided lost position at the board.
He probably acted more out of split second desperation, in the knowledge of this (as looking for a witness first, suggests) than anything else.
I'm afraid with handheld technology getting better and better all the time, this is the way things are going and we will be hearing of a lot more similar cases in the next few years. If some solution isn't devised, then OTB chess will be going the way as serious Correspondence Chess.