Gilles Andruet (born 30 March 1958,

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

– 22 August 1995 near

Saulx-les-Chartreux Saulx-les-Chartreux () is a commune in the Essonne department in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 20 kilometres from the center of Paris. History The name of the city come from a tree: ''Saule'' (willow tree in French). Mon ...

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player, an International Master and a former national champion. He was the son of

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sport ...

driver

Jean-Claude Andruet Jean-Claude Andruet (born 13 August 1940 in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, Montreuil) is a retired French professional Rallying, rally driver who competed in the World Rally Championship. Andruet took three WRC event wins during his career; 1973 M ...

Chess career

Andruet was a member of the French team at the 1982,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

. In 1988 he won the

French Chess Championship The French Chess Championship is the annual, national chess tournament of France. It was officially first played in 1923 after the formation of the ''Fédération Française des Echecs'' in 1921. The first unofficial national tournament was played i ...

and reached his peak Elo rating (2450). During the 1989 Championship, Andruet was involved in a violent altercation with Jean-Luc Seret and subsequently withdrew from the tournament despite the fact that he was in the lead after 10 of 14 rounds. He played less regularly after 1991.

Murder and subsequent trial

''For a detailed account, see Murder of Gilles Andruet''. Andruet was also a

gambler Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three elem ...

. Starting in 1993, he regularly played

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

and blackjack in

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

s and although he initially won significant amounts of money, he eventually became a pathological gambler riddled with debt. On 22 August 1995 Andruet's body was found on the shores of the Yvette in

. He had been beaten to death. The investigation focused on Joseph Liany and his son Franck who had presumably helped Andruet cash a check of 398,000

French franc The franc (, ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It w ...

s. Josepth Liany was eventually tried eight years later, convicted of murder and sentenced to a 15-year prison term. His son Franck received a seven-year sentence for his role in the affair. Joseph Liany subsequently identified his nephew Sacha Rhoul as the man solely responsible for the murder. A new trial in 2006 cleared Liany but convicted Rhoul ''

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in ab ...

''. Rhoul had been living in Marrakech where he and his father managed the Palais Rhoul, a well-known

luxury hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

. Jean-Claude Andruet, Gilles' father repeatedly called for the arrest and

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

of Rhoul. On 25 February 2010, Moroccan authorities arrested Rhoul following an

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

mandate and extradited him on 6 March. Four years later, Sacha Rhoul was acquitted.

References

This article is largely a translation of that appearing on the French Wikipedia site - see the language link in the left margin to gain access.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Andruet, Gilles 1958 births 1995 deaths 1995 murders in Europe French chess players Chess International Masters Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Versailles, Yvelines People murdered in France French murder victims Deaths by beating in Europe 20th-century chess players