Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

[Nic Haynes]

A new story has come out about about a French Grandmaster who may have been cheating at the chess Olympiad. The accussed is Sebastian Feller (FIDE 2657), who won an individual Gold Medal on board 5 for France. Two other French players are also accused, although they were not on the Olympiad team.

The accuser is (very surprisingly) the French Chess Federation (FFE).

Feller unequivocally denied the allegations.

4 of the other French Olympiad players, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Laurent Fressinet, Vladislav Tkachiev and Romain Edouard wrote a vague letter saying that they support the FFE in their efforts, but not really commenting on the actual veracity of the accusations.

I haven't read any information as to how Feller was apparently cheating

News articles with the details here

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6963
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6965
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6974

It's kind of sad really, and certainly not a new thing. Unfortunately, with the advent of computer programs that are better at chess then humans, I think we will be seeing more and more accusations- whether or not it is actually happening at the top level, I really don't know.

The last example I remember was Mamedyarov accusing a Russian GM of cheating at the Aeroflot Open. I don't believe Mamedyarov had any proof whatsoever, and that didn't really go anywhere, it looked like unfounded mudslinging.

As for this situation, I have no idea what happened, but it will be interesting to see what comes out.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

A new story has come out about about a French Grandmaster who may have been cheating at the chess Olympiad. The accussed is Sebastian Feller (FIDE 2657), who won an individual Gold Medal on board 5 for France. Two other French players are also accused, although they were not on the Olympiad team.

The accuser is (very surprisingly) the French Chess Federation (FFE).

Feller unequivocally denied the allegations.

...snipped some

I haven't read any information as to how Feller was apparently cheating

...snipped some more

As for this situation, I have no idea what happened, but it will be interesting to see what comes out.

It is rather odd; one would think that the most obvious statement to make when accusing someone of cheating is the part describing HOW they cheated... Without that, it seems like a witch hunt (or revenge attack as implied by Feller's retort).

[Larry Castle]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

This is really sad for chess. Either someone is cheating or someone's reputation is being destroyed by accusations of cheating. I don't know much about computers and such but, what happens when you can have a device that fits in the palm of your hand and you can sneak into the washroom or whatever. How will it be possible to stop this nonsense? Strip searches? metal detectors? X-rays? at tournaments. As long as there is money, titles or some kind of prestige involved, it will be very hard to stop those who wish to cheat. Then you have the disgruntled loser who accuses the winner of cheating (remember "toiletgate").
The Genie is out of the bottle. It will be interesting to see how the chess world deals with this problem.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

This is really sad for chess. Either someone is cheating or someone's reputation is being destroyed by accusations of cheating. I don't know much about computers and such but, what happens when you can have a device that fits in the palm of your hand and you can sneak into the washroom or whatever. How will it be possible to stop this nonsense? Strip searches? metal detectors? X-rays? at tournaments. As long as there is money, titles or some kind of prestige involved, it will be very hard to stop those who wish to cheat. Then you have the disgruntled loser who accuses the winner of cheating (remember "toiletgate").
The Genie is out of the bottle. It will be interesting to see how the chess world deals with this problem.

I think most high-level tournaments or matches already have regs in place for this (yes, toiletgate...) but what about large Open tournaments where it is pretty much impractical to use metal detectors or TSA-style pat-downs (hey - there is an idea to boost attendance...)

Wasn't there a case of alleged cheating in the US recently where the accused simply vanished when confronted with cheating? I don't recall hearing that his identity was even properly established.

Complete prevention is likely impossible, so that leaves harsh sanctions for people caught: lifetime bans etc. Catching people is not always easy.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

Posted by Louis Morin on Parlons échecs, taken from a british blog:

"a visitor visiting Biel last summer, wrote the following comment: he saw last summer Marzolo (who was not playing himself) analyzing the game Hauchard-Pelletier with the engine in another room, Marzolo kept running into the tournament hall, transmitted information to Hauchard, who then won this game. This visitor also writes in his comment, that Marzolo was seen by several witnesses and that he himself immediately confronted Marzolo after this game, with the result that Marzolo packed his laptop and ran away. He writes that he informed the organisers, and according to him this resulted in a ban of the involved persons for Biel. If this is true, it probably would have been better to have the publicity around this case already and not a few months later around the Olympiad."

[Hal Bond]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

Metal detectors were used at the Olympiad, but your metal was returned to you after passing thru. The Arbiters were on site at least an hour before the round so I am unsure of the treatment of players and spectators. I believe a determined cheater could have found a way. Drug testing was also conducted to appease the IOC...

On more than one occasion spectators with laptops were ejected from the stands in the playing hall.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

Metal detectors were used at the Olympiad, but your metal was returned to you after passing thru. The Arbiters were on site at least an hour before the round so I am unsure of the treatment of players and spectators. I believe a determined cheater could have found a way. Drug testing was also conducted to appease the IOC...

On more than one occasion spectators with laptops were ejected from the stands in the playing hall.

What was the problem with spectators with laptops? Were they shouting out novelties? (I presume that players could not mingle with spectators? - perhaps that was the issue)

[Bindi Cheng]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

Getting off-topic here, as you can see from chessbase, the player Feller defended himself by stating that he was supporting the current fide president while the FFE was supporting Karpov. He points to politics as a reason why he was accused of cheating. Honestly, I tend to support Feller, I mean of all the people to accuse you of cheating, its own organization? It's like the CFC accusing any of our olympiad players of cheating. Why the heck would it want to do that? Feller also won a board prize for France. I hope Feller sues them like crazy.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

Why the heck would it want to do that?

To protect the integrity of the game, of the players and of the FFE which I am afraid seems to be a concept way beyond your understanding.

[Bindi Cheng]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

To protect the integrity of the game, of the players and of the FFE which I am afraid seems to be a concept way beyond your understanding.

LOL Jean, please don't get personal here, there's no need to do that since I've only talked to you once in some chess tournament where you were sandbagging at an Under2400 section. I mean, really? why do you like to make enemies on a public chesstalk forum?

P.S. Nice selection of the quote btw. Way to manipulate my wording to fit your insult. It's called a rhetorical question, if you would like to know the meaning, I'd suggest to search it up for your understanding

[Kirk Gornall]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

The accused are innocent until proven guilty. The French Chess Federation would need conclusive proof that cheating occurred. I presume that they must be confident of producing evidence to support their claims, or otherwise it would not make sense to make these allegations public, which could cause embarrassment to all parties concerned. I think laptops, computers, and any other devices that could host chess programs should be banned from playing venues.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

P.S. Nice selection of the quote btw. Way to manipulate my wording to fit your insult. It's called a rhetorical question, if you would like to know the meaning, I'd suggest to search it up for your understanding

No manipulation at all. You clearly implied that a federation should not accuse its players no matter what. Your words (sues them like crazy...) give me the impression that a concept such as integrity is for the moment beyond your understanding. But of course this is a rhetorical impression.

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Cheating allegations against strong French Grandmaster

interesting case