More OTB Cheating !

 Dembo's lawyers requested to have it removed or they will filed lawsuit against chess.com so chess.com agreed to have it removed.

Sounds about right to me. You give them a second chance.

kco: therefore it didn't happen. Likewise, in this case, if the French federation cannot present solid evidence, their accusation is just a joke.

even if it ain't with cell phone, it could still be done with hand signaling.

it isn't forbidden to go around and looking at other games in OTB tournaments

and if someone wanted to cheat by helping a team member they could make some kind of hand signaling. blinking with eyes overdoing it: look there is a tactics here.

it would be very hard to detect. if I said to the referee someone in the audience blinked with their eyes, I doubt that a referee would do something.

I've been to team match their some of other teammembers pointed at the board while my team member was in the rest room.

the referee didn't do anything he wasn't there.

She did get caught but chess.com didn't trust their detection method and withdrew the accusations. Or admitted they simply made a mistake. I repeat, her name does not appear on the list of caught cheaters. What proof do you have she was banned for cheating? Maybe she chose to close the account herself!

In the case of the French players, the case is very thin. They only have some unusual number of messages on a phone bill, but they don't know their contents. We'll certainly hear more of this when the case goes to court.

Cheating in Tournaments is not something new...it has been happening for ages, and clearly Organisers don't really care about it...because they are not doing anything to avoid it, they just care about the money also...or at least most of them.

...so it just shows that our beloved sport is not immune to the moral decay of the rest of society...all is lost...

Since they banned smoking in events I can no longer blow coded smoke rings....

They're a bunch of pathetic A-holes.

 +1

I agree with NM Reb

LMAO at smoke rings 

RR-"Failure to be 'too harsh' is what is allowing people to get away with this. Being caught cheating should result in an immidiate permenent ban and repayment of all the prize money you have ever won."

we had peoples going to jail for killing other peoples in thier cars but does that deter other peoples, I guess not ?

The french federation definatley has proven they cheated, if you read the whole article, the problem will come in because the SMS message are considered private and will be tossed out and with out the coded sms message which match up with the moves played in the games and with the first choice of the engine, the cheating case will disappear.  It will probably be enough that the info got out there but no penalty will be assess to the people involved, although I would like to think that no self respecting organizer would allow them to play in their tournaments.

I agree with Reb ...

a classic OTB man ...

and a great player!

Stiffer penalties don't work by themselves...just look at the results of "the death penalty"...they are just who they are...morally decayed...the control has to be better rules and screening to prevent this from happening, along with stiffer penalties...

Because when you life sucks so much death isn't really all that bad? I think a police state with draconian laws seems to drastically reduce crime and force people to behave but it'll never float in civilized countries.

way back in the days people's hand get chopped off for stealing or cheating, torture works way better than death penalties

If I cheat I get $100000 and if I get caught I only get banned from ever entering most chess tournaments, seems like there's no incentive NOT to cheat

The death penalty is VERY RARELY USED. Which could be one reason why it's not a deterrant.  

    Cell phones?  Cheating ? Big shot chess players ? I'll take the lot of you to the woodshed...Do you actually believe this game of ours is ratings, or a designation ? The game you play is not chess...... more like an ego trip.

Worst of all: Sebastien Feller is competing in the ongoing European chess championship, in France.

Apparently his 3-year ban only starts 10 days after it was communicated, giving him the opportunity to compete there. To top it off: the french federation is paying for his hotel expenses during the tournament.

I can't understand any self-respecting tournament director allowing a known cheater to play (especially since he has shown no remorse at all)

I read the news on chessbase and I honestly don't know how cheating in this case can be proven. It's only a warning sign for future tournaments that stricter rules regarding electronic devices need to be enforced.

yep but it is kind of hard to do anything. even if a player only uses his mobile phone once in a game. it may be the single move that determines everything.

or if he uses his cell phone to look up the opening variation.

a single player could destroy an entire tournament with using his cellphone just once.

even if he doesn't win the tournament another may win than without this single move.