French chess team cheated via text
April 1, 2011 by Katie Gatto 
Image: Wikipedia.
(PhysOrg.com) -- We all want to get ahead, but how many of us are willing to cheat to do it? As it turns out, when the stakes are high, cheating really isn't that uncommon. Sadly, we have come to see cheating as commonplace when it is done by professional athletes or politicians, but when you think about cheating, chess probably isn't the first place that comes to mind.
Well, you may want to think again. As it turns out some of the smartest people in the world may not be the most moral, and technology is helping cheaters to be better at what they do.
The French chess federation has seen fit to suspend three of its players for allegedly using technology to cheat. The players under suspension are Sébastien Feller, a chess grandmaster who is only 20 years old, Cyril Marzolo, and Arnaud Hauchard, who is the French team captain. The trio is accused of using the help of a chess playing computer during the matches. You may wonder how they were getting the information in real time during the match. Simple, by using a tool that you probably have in your pocket right now, a cell phone. Moves were allegedly exchanged via text messages.
The cheating is supposed to have happened at last September's Chess Olympiad which took place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The team was accused by the French federation's own vice president, Joanna Pomian, who saw a text message saying "Hurry up and send me some moves." that was sent by Mr Hauchard during a match.
An examination of the players phone bills showed over 150 texts during the match. Privacy laws prevented looking at the actual text of the messages, but it was enough to convince authorities.
© 2010 PhysOrg.com
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Apr 01, 2011
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Apr 01, 2011
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Apr 01, 2011
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Apr 01, 2011
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I guess that is the question of the hour, SmartJerry. Imagine how irksome it would be to be disciplined for taking moves that lead to a loss.
Apr 01, 2011
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he got a gold medal for his board.
it is fairly normal to get up while it's not your turn. games last easily over 2 hours with standard time controls.
Apr 02, 2011
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Apr 02, 2011
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Only one of the four players who actually played was cheating (Feller). His win was the edge the team needed to win about 3 matches.
"How in the world were they able to see their phones without getting noticed? That's pretty good sleight of hand"
One of them signaled the moves by stopping next to the players' chairs. Each of the chairs corresponded to a different rank/file.
Apr 02, 2011
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You can do this on some versions of Chess Master, which is probably what they were using.
You can even "weight" how the A.I. values material and positions, and set up any board position and allow the best computer A.I., or several of them, to play the game(s) from that position over and over. This will allow you to pick the move which is most likely to be the "best possible move" no matter what.
Oh yeah, computer A.I vs computer A.I tends to end in a stalemate or a win by white "almost" every time...
Apr 02, 2011
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That's actually pathetic. You'd think that people allegedly that smart would come up with a better way of cheating.