Paris, Mar. 26: Three French chess players have been suspended from the national team for cheating.

Sebastian Feller, 20, Cyril Marzolo, 32, and French captain Arnaud Hauchard, 39, were suspended by their national chess federation after being accused of cheating at a chess Olympiad.

"There have already been suspicions of cheating in chess, even involving strong players in the past, but there has never been proof of cheating," the Daily Mail quoted federation chief Laurent Verat, as saying.

The allegations of the cheating came within the French chess set-up, after the federation's vice president Joanna Pomain found a seemingly incriminating text message on one of the players' phones.

She found a message sent to Marzolo by Hauchard that read "Hurry up and send me some moves".

She later discovered Hauchard had sent some 150 messages to his teammate during the tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk last September.

While privacy laws mean the contents of the text messages have not been discovered, the French chess federation is reportedly `convinced' the players cheated.

Feller''s lawyer Charles Morel told French radio station Europe 1 his client was determined to fight the allegations. (ANI)