England GM David Howell discussed the cheating problem in chess during an interview with Dina Belenkaya on April 22. Howell says chess players are paranoid because of past cheating cases, and recalls the Sebastien Feller incident.

David Howell

David Howell

England GM

“Why are grandmasters so paranoid? It’s hard to say. There have been cheating incidents in the past, and people have been caught, but they’ve been quite rare.

I myself was a victim of Sebastien Feller at the 2010 Olympiad. I lost that game. He played this crazy tactic of 20 moves deep, which left him with less material and I could barely move. He played every move in 30-60 seconds, looked tense, and his eyes never looked at the board.

I became paranoid in 2011-2012. Even then, I felt something was a bit off: if someone plays well against me, it’s not that I’m playing badly, it’s that they’re connected to Stockfish or have some kind of ‘beads’…

This culture is strong now because top players were caught online. And now it’s just in the back of their minds. There’s also a club of 15-20 people who constantly play each other. They know how good each other is. But as soon as someone from the outside surprises them, they think: ‘Surely, no one outside our club can be that good’.

It’s a bit odd…”

French GM Sebastien Feller was involved in an organized three-people cheating scheme during the 2010 Chess Olympiad. Feller won a gold medal and was later caught using computer-generated moves transmitted via a coded signaling system.

French IM Cyril Marzolo followed Feller’s games and picked the best moves using the Firebird engine. He sent the moves to team captain Arnaud Hauchard via coded SMS. Hauchard relayed the moves to Feller by standing behind specific chessboards or sitting at particular tables in the competition hall. Each position or table represented a specific square on the board.

The scheme was uncovered by the French Chess Federation. Feller, Hauchard, and Marzolo were banned from FIDE tournaments for 2 years and 9 months, 3 years, and 1 year and 6 months respectively.

Credit: John Saunders