The professional game is clearly vulnerable, as even chess computer programs attached to mobile phones are now strong enough to give faultless tactical advice. If there is insufficient invigilation, both of players and coaches within a playing arena, then a dreadful situation could arise in which no competitors would be exempt from fear or suspicion of cheating. The organisers of the Olympiad erred in not banning all mobile phones from the playing arena, but with the advance of miniaturisation we can already envisage individuals having receivers on their person which would be undetectable except through the most stringent scanning — a degrading prospect for eminent grandmasters.

One person who has not commented publicly about this scandal is its proximate victim, David Howell. However, I have now spoken to him about it and he told me the following: "Feller's behaviour during the game was odd. He seemed unusually nervous and got up frequently from the board; on these occasions I could see him looking around distractedly. It didn't occur to me that this was anything to do with cheating. But after the game I looked at it for over an hour with a computer and was amazed to find that at every turn he played exactly what the computer recommended which is highly unusual for a game of such length."

What does Howell think of the sentence meted out to his opponent? "I think that three years is much too lenient; and his age — the same as mine — should have nothing to do with it. He is an adult and a professional. He should be banned for life." I should add that David is a calm and reasonable individual, not given to extremes of opinion. His anger is not so much at the fact that he was personally the victim, but that grandmaster chess as a whole is at risk if exemplary sentences are not handed out to those found guilty of cheating in a way unthinkable (and indeed, impossible) until very recently.

Here, for those of a forensic disposition, is the game at the centre of the scandal, with Feller (and Firebird) playing Black. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 Qb6 9.Nf3 f6 10.exf6 Nxf6 11.0-0 Bd6 12.b3 0-0 13.Bb2 Bd7 14.Nc3 Rac8 15.Na4 Qa5 16.Ne5 Nb4 17.Bb1 Nxa4 18.bxa4 Qc7 19.a3 Nc2!! (A "computer move", instead of the weaker but more "human" Nc6.) 20. Ra2 Bxe5 21.dxe5 Ne4 22.Bc1? (Howell blunders, not seeing the tactical shock that follows) Nxf2! 23.Qxc2 Nh3+! 24.gxh3 Qb6+ 25.Kg2 Rxc2+ 26.Bxc2 Rxf1 27.Kxf1 Qc7 28.Rb2 d4 29.Ke2 Qxe5+ and Black's Queen and central pawn mass are too strong for Howell's uncoordinated pieces. White held out for a further 19 moves, but the result was no longer in doubt. One cannot say the same for the method by which it was achieved.