Maxime Vachier-Lagrave recalled the 2010 cheating scandal in the French national team. MVL says that this situation affected him a lot, and notes that it was unthinkable for such a thing to happen at the elite level.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

France's No. 2

“It happened within the French national team. A player, with the help of the captain at the time, cheated during that competition in 2010. So, a French player cheated during that tournament. It was proven, verified, and so on. As it happens, the captain at the time was my coach.

All this story had affected me a lot and had created, notably, 6 months to a year where I was both in doubt about my game, but more clearly in doubt even about the chess community itself.

These were players I knew, players I thought I knew perfectly, who had committed an irreparable act in terms of chess.

If you give a five-year-old who has just learned the game a computer, and you give them the computer’s moves, they’ll beat Magnus Carlsen without any problem. So, it’s inconceivable that we could let this happen. I kept thinking, if they did it, who else can do it?

I managed to avoid having my own career tarnished because he was my coach at the time, but it was pretty clear to everyone that I had nothing to do with it.

This was followed by periods of doubt and, once again, a major setback.”

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: Lennart Ootes