French team chess event begins without the cheating accused
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hello everyone,

We found a nice report on the French Teach chess event at www.chessvibes.com. According to them, the French Team Chess Championship begins without Feller, Hauchard and Marzolo – The three French players who were accused of cheating by the French Chess Federation saw their appeal rejected and their penalties increased. 

The French Team Championship has started in Mulhouse and there are some strong GMs participating, e.g. David Navara, Pavel Eljanov, Le Quang Liem, Etienne Bacrot, Arkadij Naiditsch, Anish Giri and Loek van Wely. 

The Top 12 of the French Team Championship takes place May 26th – June 5th, 2011 in Mulhouse, a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. In a round-robin, the strongest 12 teams fight for the French club title, with Chalons en Champagne defending their title.

After four rounds, four teams have won all their matches: Clichy, Evry Grand Roque, Marseille and host club Mulhouse Philidor. Also four players still have a 100% score: Alexander Riazantsev (one of Alexander Grischuk’s seconds in Kazan), Andrey Sokolov, Almira Skripchenko and Adrien Demuth. Among the players with 3.5/4 are Giri, Navara and Le Quang Liem.

A number of strong grandmasters are participating in Mulhouse. To name a few: Laurent Fressinet, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Alexei Dreev, David Navara, Pavel Eljanov, Le Quang Liem, Arkadij Naiditsch, Etienne Bacrot, Anish Giri, Loek van Wely and Mikhail Krasenkow. Three French players are notably absent: Sebastien Feller, Arnaud Hauchard and Cyril Marzolo.

These three names dominated the news in the French and international chess scene in February and March of this year, in an ongoing story about cheating during the Olympiad last year. 


Marzolo was sentenced to a 5-year suspension from play. Feller received a 3-year ban followed by 2 years of community service with the federation or another association. If he refused, the 2 years would be added to the suspension period. Hauchard was condemned to a lifetime ban from the duties of captain. Immediately after the verdict Feller’s lawyer, Charles Morel, announced that he would address the Appeals Committee; the lawyers of the other two players joined him.


You can refresh your memory about the French chess cheating scandal via our www.chessblog.com reports from this link.


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