39th Chess Olympiad - Controversies

Controversies

In the first round, the team from Yemen team refused to play against Israel. Each of the four Israeli players was thus awarded a technical victory.

Three French players were caught in a scheme to use a computer program to decide moves. Their plan involved one player, Cyril Marzolo, following the tournament at home and using the computer program to decide the best moves. He would send the moves by text message to another player, Arnaud Hauchard, who would then stand or sit at various tables as a signal to the player Sébastien Feller to make a certain move. Feller and Marzolo were given five year suspensions for this, while Hauchard was given a lifetime suspension. None of the other players on the French team knew of this or were involved.