Not harsh at all.    Banning from the federation for a 2nd time offense seems completely fair. 

How about some of these ideas?

- All player cellphones must be turned OFF, not vibrate or silent.  If it's a life and death situation, give the TD your phone and tell him you're expecting a call. He'll give you the phone when it vibrates. 

- ID checks. Make absolutely sure the player is who they say he/she is.

- Higher levels of vigilance when dealing with unrateds / provisional players in big-money tournaments.   The TD ought to tag these people and watch for high-frequency "leaving the tournament hall" movements.

- Tourney mgmt. software could "flag" any back-to-back upsets each round so that the TD can be a little more observant of certain players who are "on fire".

- Tourney mgmt. software could make it easier to pull up a player's history to look for any trends, e.g. sandbagging.

In my days

there wasn't cell phones, computers etc.and the only cheating bastard was Kempelen. Good ol' days.

Such practices as checking IDs and making sure that the mobile phones are turned off are common in college exams these days, it's rather surprizing to hear that they are not observed in serious OTB tournaments.

How I read it, the phones weren't with the players  but outside.

It was the team captain who apparently passed the info by staying near the players in the hall.

"

• The opponent of Vachier-Lagrave was A and 1
• The opponent of Fressinet was B and 2
• The opponent of Tkachiev C and 3
• The opponent Feller D and 4
• Feller himself was E and 5
• Tkachiev was F and 6
• Fressinet was G and 7
• Finally Vachier-Lagrave was H and 8

Arnaud Hauchard would move around the tables and stop for some time behind different players, e.g. behind the opponent of Tkachiev and then behind Fressinet to signal the square c2. Incidentally it is usually sufficient to signal the destination square – a 2600+ (or even much weaker) player is easily able to determine which piece should be moved there."

An elaborate scheme - it required three people to conspire.  One to consult the engine and transmit the move in code, who stayed off the site (I presume he got the game moves from a live webcast), one to receive the message and transmit the move to the player using a different code.  The middle man could not risk being seen entering moves into an engine at the site, even in the bar, but just looking at his phone while having a drink would not arouse suspicion. He could make a point of leaving his phone outside the playing rooms because he already had the move to communicate.

I recall there has been suspicion about Topalov in the past, starting with his sudden rise to the mid-2700 range, often centered on Danilov's tendency to stay in a front row seat near the stage when he played.  IF - and this is pure speculation of course - anything fishy were going on, Danilov might have been a decoy to attract scrutiny while some third party in the audience was the actual conduit. 

It's a shame such things have to be considered at the highest levels now - we expect attempts at open events with large prizes like the World Open, but it would be hoped it wouldn't be a problem at the top.

---

One player was cheating, aided by two (at least) who weren't playing.  The rest of the team supported the investigation.

Another example of how even GMs can consider and conspire to cheat. One is reminded of the Dembo incident here on chess.com, where people tried to claim no master of that strength would even consider cheating. Well, yes they do...

Yes, but it's difficult to prove it.

This probably wouldnt been detected if the "engine man" had not use the borrowed mobile phone (how stupid is that).

And even now after the decision of France Chess Federation, it probably wouldn't stand a test in court as privacy of exchanges SMS messages is protected by several laws.

Offenders even objected the jurisdiction as alleged cheating did not happen in France.

 

Nevertheless, interesting reading.

It would definitely change the attitude towards kibitzers and observes.

Team captains and their movement around the tables will be under magnifying glass from now on.

 

This "accident" reminds me of film IQ, when Einstein and other wise guys helped Tim Robins to pass the test using various mimics and sounds to mark A,B,C,D,E answers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.Q._%28film%29

Turning off phones is useless, the bum will use the bathroom, turn it on, cheat, then turn it off. If he can play chess above master level that wouldn't be a hard plan to figure out.

......ask Kramnik....

If there was cheating at that level, worldchampionship I think, how much cheating must be going on at local level? To me this is just SCANDALOUS! Strong actions and consequences should be taken. It is my understanding that the parties involved first admitted guilt then recanted. Bizarre!

Penalties should be extreme. Like first offense, strip the player of any titles and reset their rating as if they are a new member.  Second offense, same again and prohibit the player from ever holding a rating or winning any form of prize.  Who needs em. 

Only problem is that as the penalties get harsher, proof of cheating must be closer to 100%.

It's always the way... a few whack jobs make the entire art difficult for everyone.  The only way to stop it is to remove all spectators, limit breaks, have patrolling officials looking out for technology use of any kind and completely ban all forms of gadgetry.

kingslayer, my dear Lousyanan friend, this is a more appropriate punishment for these cheaters... extraordinaire...

They could just set up a jamming device to block all phone signals within 2 miles

I like the idea of, if proved that the players are guilty, stripping them of their titles and never allowing them to hold a FIDE title again.  Many events, at least in the states, offer GMs and IMs free or reduced fees to attend tournaments, this would definitely put a significant financial impact on the players involved if they actually had to pay to go to tournaments again.

comradedew - I believe cell phone jamming is illegal and probably worse than cheating in a chess tournament