In the biggest cheating scandal ever, the French chess federation suspended three top players for allegedly carrying off a devilishly clever scheme at the last world Olympiad team championship. According to investigators, here’s how it worked:

IM Cyril Marzolo, home in Nancy, was accused of using a computer to determine the best moves for team member GM Sebastien Feller to play in his matches in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia — 2,500 miles away.

Investigators said Marzolo concealed the moves as phone numbers in text messages to a team trainer, GM Arnaud Hauchard, who read them at a bar outside the playing hall.

Hauchard would then enter the hall and use a code based on where he stood. By pausing at one of the team’s boards, designated “c” in the code, and then another, designated “2,” he alerted Feller to move a piece to c2.

There have been cheating cases before, but never involving a player as strong as Feller or with two high-ranking accomplices.

How to foil cheats in the future? “In my view, the only way out is to use lie detectors,” veteran Russian GM Sergei Dolmatov told Izvestia.