FIDE confirms sanctions in French cheating case

The Ethics Commission of the FIDE has just released its decision on the matter of cheating which took place September 21 to October 3, 2010, at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The decisions are applicable from 1st August 2012. The Commission has suspended Arnaud Hauchard for three years, Sébastien Feller for two years and nine months, and Cyril Marzolo for one year and six months.

The French Team participated in the Chess Olympiad held in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia) from 21st September to 3rd October 2010. Mr Sébastien FELLER, a French GM, was a member of the French Team, played 9 games against Slovenia (Sebenik), Israel (Mikhalevski), Serbia (Markus), England (Howell), Austria (Kreisl), Spain (Alsina Leal), Russia 2 (Timofeev), Georgia (Gelashvili), Ukraine (Efimenko), with quite excellent results and also won a prize of 5,000 euro for the best result on the 5th board.

Mr. Arnaud HAUCHARD, a French GM, was the captain and coach of the French Team. Mr. Cyril MARZOLO, a French IM, was in France in that period, engaged in a working relationship with Ms Joanna POMIAN, vice-president of the FF; for these working reasons Mr MARZOLO in those days had received on loan for temporary use a SIM SFR correspondent to the mobile phone number 0033 (0) XXXXXXXXX, number assigned by SFR to Ms POMIAN.

On 27th September 2010, while in Khanty-Mansiysk the French team was playing a match against Austria, Cyril MARZOLO was visiting Ms. POMIAN at her home in NANCY. While he momentarily left the room, Mr. MARZOLO received an SMS text message that appeared on his cell phone screen, left in evidence on the table, in view of Ms. POMIAN who read it. It was a message apparently sent by Mr. Arnaud HAUCHARD, although he was supposed to be acting as captain during the FRANCE-AUSTRIA match, inviting Mr. MARZOLO to “send moves on the cell” (“filer les coups sur le portable”). Ms POMIAN did not immediately react. As soon as he became aware of the message, Mr. MARZOLO took leave of Ms. POMIAN.

Ms. POMIAN knew about existing ties between Mr MARZOLO, Mr FELLER and Mr HAUCHARD and suspected an illegal behavior of cheating by them, informing Mr. Jean Claude MOINGT then President of the FF. Mr. MOINGT in the next days was present in Khanty-Mansiysk and monitored Mr HAUCHARD and Mr FELLER during the FRANCE-UKRAINE match: He remarked that Mr. HAUCHARD frequently entered and exited the playing area in order to consult his cell phone.

Mr. MOINGT informed Mr HAUCHARD about the suspicions of cheating and asked that Mr FELLER not play the French team's last match, against Armenia. Mr. HAUCHARD immediately accepted this decision.

After the return of the team in France, Mr FELLER and Mr HAUCHARD were invited to participate in a meeting in front of Mr. Jean Claude MOINGT, President, Mr. Laurent VERAT, Executive Director and National Technical Director of the FF and Mr. Jordi LOPEZ GARCIA, assistant National Technical Director of the FF. The meeting was held on 11th October 2010 and Mr MOINGT, Mr VERAT and Mr LOPEZ GARCIA have declared that on that occasion Mr. FELLER and Mr HAUCHARD admitted to having cheated in in Khanty-Mansiysk during the Olympiads and also in other 2 previous tournaments (the Paris Championship and the Bienne Open, in July 2010), jointly with Mr MARZOLO (adding that “they were acting under pressure from Mr. MARZOLO”). Mr. MARZOLO followed FELLER's Olympiad matches live on the internet, analyzed them using a chess engine and sent his suggestions via SMS to the mobile phones of Mr. HAUCHARD and of Mr FELLER, during the games both used by Mr HAUCHARD outside the playing area. Then HAUCHARD transmitted the suggested moves to Mr. FELLER, into the playing area.

Mr VERAT, in the oral hearing in front of the EC, confirmed this point: “I was present and I listen at the beginning a confession by all of them. FELLER and HAUCHARD admitted in front of us that they cheated, in October 2010, they spoke for 2 hours. HAUCHARD said this also in a telephonic discussion from Khanty-Mansyisk, that he made a mistake by cheating. FELLER admitted in front of the three leaders of the FF. There were no many details about the way they cheated. After that, they did not mention this meeting. At the hearings [of the FF disciplinary Commission] they talked about consequences and then Feller should talk to his father about the situation. After the meeting and apparently after the discussion with his father, Feller changed his position”.

During the following phases of the FF disciplinary proceedings and in the civil case in France Mr FELLER, Mr HAUCHARD and Mr MARZOLO denied all responsibilities, never participating in the hearings.

During the FF disciplinary three other members of the French Olympic Team made declarations affirming that Mr HAUCHARD in front of them had confessed the cheating.

Mr Maxime VACHIER-LAGRAVE declared that: “During the Olympiad the behavior of Arnaud HAUCHARD was pretty strange … he was clearly more interested in Sébastian FELLER’s results … was very tense … was walking out of the playing hall very frequently …”, “On the 5th of January 2011, when training at home for Wijk Aan Zee with Arnaud HAUCHARD, I suddenly got a call from Jrodi LOPEZ from the FF who, learning I was currently with Arnaud HAUCHARD, asked me to call him back later. When learning that, Arnaud HAUCHARD suddenly told me that the most likely reason for this call was to inform me that a cheating had taken place in Khanty-Mansiysk, and he admitted that it really happened. As he told me, Cyril MARZOLO was sending the moves by text according to a phone code, including the number of the move, departure square and arrival square, and Sébastien FELLER was receiving them. He denied having taken part in the cheating, saying that he was only aware of it and covered it”.

Mr Maxime VACHIER-LAGRAVE produced also a copy of the print script of some messages that would be exchanged between him and Mr. HAUCHARD on 6-1-2011, where Mr HAUCHARD admitted that MARZOLO and FELLER were cheating and explained the code used by MARZOLO for sending the suggested moves, using numbers that could seem similar to phone numbers.

Mr Laurent FRESSINET declared that: “Afterward, the 6th of January 2011, Maxime VACHIER-LAGRAVE announces me, on the evidence of confidences which beforehand delivered him Arnaud HAUCHARD, of an affair of cheating during the Olympiads involving a member of the French team, Sébastien FELLER. I am stunned, shocked, by this piece of news. According to these assertions, FELLER would have, during the Olympiads, played his games on the basis of instruction that Cyril MARZOLO, from FRANCE, gave him”. “That very evening, I receive Arnaud HAUCHARD’s phone call, which, in answer to my request of qualification, confirms me that a system of cheating organized between FELLER and MARZOLO would have effectively been in work during the Olympiad.”

Mr Romain EDOUARD declared that, after being informed by the FF of the assumed cheating, together with VACHIER LAGRAVE and FRESSINET they decided to request Mr HAUCHARD to have a meeting with them: “… on 11th of January (2011), Arnaud HAUCHARD arrived to the meeting (in the “Atlantic” restaurant close to Montparnasse in PARIS) once again on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He said he needed to make his “mea culpa” and explained us the whole cheating system (exactly the same that the federation described me one day earlier): Cyril MARZOLO was analyzing the games with a powerful computer, and sending the moves on Sébastien FELLER’s mobile phone according to a coding system”, “we also asked Arnaud HAUCHARD why Sébastien FELLER had lost two games in spite of his computer assistance. He answered that the cheating system was not well set up at the beginning, and that even later Sébastien FELLER was sometimes lacking time after move 30-35”.

The invoice/itemized telephone statements ­facture detaillée­ concerning the period 19­9/18­10­2010, concerning the SFR mobile telephone number 0033 (0) XXXXXXXXX, received by Ms. Joanna POMIAN from SFR, shows that Mr MARZOLO systematically sent tens of SMS to the phone numbers used by Mr. HAUCHARD (0033 (0) XXXXXXXXX) and Mr FELLER (0033 (0) XXXXXXXXX), exactly during the matches played by Mr FELLER.

On 16 August 2011, in front of the CNOSF, following a procedure of conciliation, Mr MARZOLO admitted his responsibility in the cheating, without adding any details, and obtained a reduction of the disciplinary sanction against him. During the hearing in front of the EC Mr MARZOLO more clearly confessed his responsibility: he admitted his role in the cheating organised in cooperation with Mr FELLER and Mr HAUCHARD, he followed FELLER's Olympiad matches live on the internet, analyzed them using various different chess engines and sent his suggestions via SMS to Mr. HAUCHARD. He added that he received money for this: “I did it just for money, just for money, not for friendship but for money. I was paid”, he needed money because he was in a difficult economic situation.

Finally Mr MARZOLO confirmed again his confession in two written memorials, adding many relevant details: he was contacted by M. HAUCHARD et M. Sébastien FELLER, he did not immediately understand that they intended to organize a cheating, he was surprised because he knew very well M. Sébastien FELLER, FELLER worked very hard on chess with M. DORFMAN and by himself, but M. HAUCHARD strongly insisted, he was tented and he accepted. MARZOLO participated in the cheating sending the moves by sms to M. HAUCHARD who transmitted them to M. Sébastien FELLER. Not all the moves, just some moves in some games: he remembers in the game against Mikalevski quite a lot of moves starting from 12. … h5, till the zeitnot; against Markus more or less 10 moves; against Howell quite a lot of moves starting from 15. … Qa5; against Kreisl some moves, but HAUCHARD and FELLER had problems in the communication of the moves; against Alsina some moves in the middle game and at the end; against Timofeev practically all moves starting from 12… Rc8; against Gelashvili no more than 5 moves in the middle game; against Efimenko starting from 11.Qf4 till the draw. About the method for the communication of the moves by HAUCHARD to FELLER in the playing hall in Khanty-Mansiysk, he declares that he is not sure about what exact method they employed, because there were many different methods of communication, linked to the position of the playing hall, behind some chessboards or some players, in the rows also (“il y a différent moyen de communication, cela dépendait de la position de la salle, cela pouvait être derrière des échiquiers ou joueurs, dans les rangées aussi, je ne sais pas lequel ils ont mis en application sur place“), he says it would be difficult to explain by words the cheating method, but he declares to be available to show it, adding other details.

MARZOLO remarks than after the lost game against Austria, Sébastien FELLER contacted him, FELLER wanted to stop the cheating, because HAUCHARD made mistakes in the transmission of the moves …. but the next day MARZOLO received a sms … they had to continue M. HAUCHARD continuously reminded (“avait pris la tête à”) M.Sébastien FELLER the high phone expenses, therefore they needed to continue. MARZOLO has added also that they cheated in the same way during the Paris Championship and in Bienne, before the Chess Olympiad. More than once he specifies that M.HAUCHARD was the main instigator, he convinced Sébastien FELLER … (lui avait monté le cerveau) .. he did not hesitate to propose the cheating to FELLER, a young man who had a great future as a player, and in his opinion this would not be an isolated case.