Background
Sebastien Feller was born in Thionville, France on March 11, 1991.
Sebastien Feller was born in Thionville, France on March 11, 1991.
He played as the 1st reserve for France in the European Team Championships 2009 held in Novi Sad, Serbia scoring +4 =4 -1. In 2010, he represented France in the 39th Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia but was found guilty of cheating by the French Chess Federation (FFE). 39th Chess Olympiad
However, the French Chess Federation accused Feller, along with French players General Motors Arnaud Hauchard and IM Cyril Marzolo, of cheating during the Olympiad.
While Feller was in the playing hall, Marzolo was in France where he checked the best moves on the computer.
Marzolo then allegedly sent the move in coded pairs of numbers by SMS to Hauchard. Once Hauchard had the suggested move, he would position himself in the hall behind one of the other players’ tables in a predefined coded system, where each table represented a move to play.
The French Chess Federation claims, in all, 200 text messages were sent during the tournament. The scam was supposedly uncovered by Joanna Pomian, the federation"s vice-president
Feller has released a statement (in French) in defense of himself:
Official Statement of General Motors Sebastien Feller (translated)
Translation by Jean-Michel Blatrier
The French Chess Federation has taken disciplinary measures against the three players.
These measures were later revoked by a French civil court due to technicalities. - David Howell vs Sebastien Feller, Khanty Mansiysk 2010, 0-1
- Sebastien Feller - Robert Markus, Khanty Mansiysk 2010, 1-0
- Sebastien Feller - Tamaz Gelashvili, Khanty Mansiysk 2010, 1-0
- Ivan Morovic-Fernandez - Sebastien Feller, Aeroflot Open 2010, 0-1
- Artyom Timofeev - Sebastien Feller, Khanty Mansiysk 2010, 0-1
- Sebastien Feller - Andrei Volokitin, Aix-les-Bains 2011, 1-0
Feller"s FIDE ranking has been suspended following the judgment of the FIDE Ethic Commission. In January 2012 he was listed the last time in the top 100 published by FIDE at position 95.
His handle on the Internet Chess Club is "GodSebFeller".
In July 2012 the FIDE Ethic Commission sanctioned all three players and ruled "Mr. Sébastien FELLER has to be sanctioned with the exclusion from the participation in all FIDE tournaments, as a player or as a member of a national delegation, for a period of 2 (two) years and 9 (nine) months, starting from the 1st of August 2012".