English Chess Forum

I'd almost forgotten about this, but new developments have been reported on the French Chess Federation website at http://www.echecs.asso.fr

Here is the relevant text:

"28 juillet 2012

Arnaud Hauchard, Sébastien Feller et Cyril Marzolo suspendus par la FIDE

La commission d'éthique de la FIDE vient de rendre publique sa décision concernant l'affaire de la tricherie organisée lors de l'Olympiade de Khanty Mansiysk, en Russie, qui s'est déroulée du 21 septembre au 3 octobre 2010. Ses décisions sont applicables à partir du 1 août 2012.

Saisie par la FFE, la Commission a suspendu Arnaud Hauchard (3 ans), Sébastien Feller (2 ans et 9 mois), Cyril Marzolo (1 an et 6 mois). La peine de ce dernier, identique à celle du CNOSF, est considérée comme ayant été purgée. Cependant, la Commission d'Ethique de la Fide donnera un avis définitif au terme de la période de 9 mois de sursis, qui court du 27 février au 27 novembre 2012."

As Mark Crowther has been tweeting at https://twitter.com/MarkTWIC, there is some confusion as to what precisely this means. Hence I think I'd better leave it to someone whose French is better than mine to see if he or she can make sense of the announcement.

My french speaking partner, translating under duress, says the last bits only apply to Cyril Marzolo. They think he has served his term of suspension already but will confirm on 27 November. The other two start their terms of suspension from August this year.

Well, it's twenty-nine years since my grade D A-level. So, without using a dictionary of any kind...

La commission d'éthique de la FIDE vient de rendre publique sa décision concernant l'affaire de la tricherie organisée lors de l'Olympiade de Khanty Mansiysk, en Russie, qui s'est déroulée du 21 septembre au 3 octobre 2010. Ses décisions sont applicables à partir du 1 août 2012.

The FIDE Ethics Commission has just published its ruling regarding the the case of organised cheating during the Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad, in Russia, which took place from 21 September to 3 October 2010. Its decisions take effect from 1 August 2012.

Saisie par la FFE, la Commission a suspendu Arnaud Hauchard (3 ans), Sébastien Feller (2 ans et 9 mois), Cyril Marzolo (1 an et 6 mois). La peine de ce dernier, identique à celle du CNOSF, est considérée comme ayant été purgée. Cependant, la Commission d'Ethique de la Fide donnera un avis définitif au terme de la période de 9 mois de sursis, qui court du 27 février au 27 novembre 2012."

[Saisie??] by the French Chess Federation, the Commission has suspended Arnaud Hauchard for three years, Sébastien Feller for two years and nine months and Cyril Marzolo for one year and eighteen months. The sentence of the last-named, as with those of [CSNOF??], is considered already to have been served. However, the FIDE Ethics Commission will pronounce definitively on the term of nine months suspension, which runs from 27 February to 27 November 2012.


How did I get on? Not well enough to make any sense of that last bit, certainly. Whether I have the vocabulary right or not.

'sursis' in the last bit could also mean part of the sentence being 'suspended' as in the English sense of '1 yr suspended for 6 mths' , meaning 'a 1 yr sentence, but will only come into force if you offend somehow within the next 6 mths'. So it could mean Marzolo's 18 mth punishment is viewed as having already been 'time served', with the proviso that he has to keep out of trouble for the Feb-Nov 2012 period they mention. Basically as for what Jonathan's other half said.

CNOSF could mean the French National Olympic Committee - 'Committee National des Olympiques Sport de France', or similar - esp if that is a kind of supreme arbiter for all French Sporting Federations that one or more of the players might have tried to appeal to overturn, or moderate, punishments handed down by the French Chess Federation (FEE)...? So that bit could mean ' this punishment, in accordance with (the decision of) the CNOSF'....

So what's "Saisie"? I keep thinking "dans le Metro".....

JustinHorton wrote:So what's "Saisie"? I keep thinking "dans le Metro".....

Nothing as interesting as Zazie of that ilk. I think it's a use of the verb saisir, but means here 'referred' (e.g. to a court), so it almost certainly translates as:

"In a case referred to it by the French Chess Federation (FEE)...."

Thanks to all. I hadn't intended to provoke everyone into seeking to recall their long forgotten French.

I've now contacted a French arbiting colleague, who has confirmed that the position is as stated by Jonathan Rogers (and his partner).

Feller and Hauchard are suspended from 1st August 2012 for 2 years 9 months and 3 years respectively. (As a result Feller is excluded from the French Championship in August).

Marzolo has already served a suspension in France, as he didn't appeal originally. As a result his suspension of 1 year 6 months is likely to be considered served on 27th November but this will be confirmed at that time.

I'll post again if I obtain the full judgment.

Sorry David but that does not make agree with reality. I have just played in my French Club's annual FIDE international tournament. The event was from July 21-26. Marzolo played and finished fifth. You can see the wall chart at

http://www.echecs.asso.fr/ResultatNew.a ... &Action=Ga

He scored the same number of points as me. I am sure the organiser would not have let him play if he was banned.

Incidentally there was a dispute in the 15 minute tournament at the event involving Marzolo. I did not play in the event and did not see it. But my team mate alleges that when he played Marzola in this event, my team mate had only a few seconds left, and Marzola held his clock "button" down so that my team mate could not press it and lost on time.

Cheers
Harry

harrylamb wrote:Sorry David but that does not make agree with reality. I have just played in my French Club's annual FIDE international tournament. The event was from July 21-26. Marzolo played and finished fifth. You can see the wall chart at

http://www.echecs.asso.fr/ResultatNew.a ... &Action=Ga

He scored the same number of points as me. I am sure the organiser would not have let him play if he was banned.

I thought Marzolo was only banned from coaching/captaining chess players/teams? The other two were the ones banned from playing. Presumably Marzolo was still free to play chess, though whether he should have been is another matter. I may have this completely wrong, but that is my memory of one article I read about this. OK, I just went and looked it up. It was Hauchard who was banned for life (initially) from coaching. It was indeed Feller and Marzolo who were banned from playing chess. So it seems Harry is right to point out what he has.

harrylamb wrote:Sorry David but that does not make agree with reality. I have just played in my French Club's annual FIDE international tournament. The event was from July 21-26. Marzolo played and finished fifth. You can see the wall chart at

http://www.echecs.asso.fr/ResultatNew.a ... &Action=Ga

He scored the same number of points as me. I am sure the organiser would not have let him play if he was banned.

Incidentally there was a dispute in the 15 minute tournament at the event involving Marzolo. I did not play in the event and did not see it. But my team mate alleges that when he played Marzola in this event, my team mate had only a few seconds left, and Marzola held his clock "button" down so that my team mate could not press it and lost on time.

Cheers
Harry

I ought to have been more specific.

Marzolo's French ban expired on February 27th, so he was free to play last week.

He now has an international ban at least until 27th November, when the FIDE Ethics Commission will consider further whether or not he has served his time.

The fact that he was able to play after the expiry of the French ban but before the imposition of the international one demonstrates the nature of the issue.

Edit:

He now has an international ban at least until 27th November.

This is wrong - please see my later post.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... teamq.html

For full ruling.

Alex McFarlane wrote:http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... teamq.html

For full ruling.

There is also a long article (in French) at http://www.europe-echecs.com/actualites ... -4411.html.

It seems that Marzolo confessed all in the latter stages of the French quasi-judicial process and when he appeared before the FIDE Ethics Commission. This explains why he has been treated more leniently than the others. His confession seems to have removed any lingering doubt in the minds of the Ethics Commission as to the guilt of Hauchard and Feller.

I was wrong in what I said previously about the details of Marzolo's sentence. In France he was banned for eighteen months from May 27th 2011 to November 2012, but with the last nine months suspended. Hence, he was free to play again from 27th February 2012, but was effectively on probation for the then ensuing nine months.

The FIDE Ethics Commission has now imposed the same sentence internationally, as from the same dates. Hence he can currently play (contrary to what I said before) but on the expiry of the second nine month period the Commission will review whether his conduct has been satisfactory during it.

Therefore the dispute reported by Harry Lamb may possibly be of some significance.

Marzolo also played in the same tournament as I did in San Sebastian in April.

He did rather well, despite the final round loss, finishing in 8th place and gaining 13 rating points. Indeed, a draw in the last round would appear to have been just enough for a GM norm, given that his round 1 opponent could be counted as a rating floor of 2200.

I didn't see or hear of any bad bahviour by him then, though I have also independently heard stories about "clock-holding" by him in another past event, so I think M.Marzolo may at least be guilty of some unsportsmanlike conduct, on occasion.

There's an update on this at
http://www.whychess.org/en/node/2683

They now seem to be arguing about whether the FIDE decision means Feller et al are suspended from all events rated by FIDE or just from all events organised on behalf of FIDE.

The French courts appear to be interpreting it as the latter, so they appear able to play in the French Championships.

Roger de Coverly wrote:The French courts appear to be interpreting it as the latter, so they appear able to play in the French Championships.

Not quite. Maze is in fact playing in the French Championships in place of Feller.