i heard that erik has devised up aanti-cheating methods. what exactly are they?

For obvious reasons, I don't think they'll be described exactly. But in general, the most effective means to testing for cheats is to suspect games through a suite of programs generally available to the public, such as Chessmaster, Fritz, Shredder, etc. If one of these programs makes moves that largely coincide with those made by the player, that's a red flag.

Of course, a cheater could try to disguise computer use by making occasional moves on their own, but still an overall picture would emerge. 

what if they're just a really really good player, and then they get banned?

I'm sure there would be grounds for appeal. If someone was a superb enough player to subconsciously mirror a chess computer, it would be time for them to make an appearance at a local chess club, where such unusual talent could surely be evaluated and appreciated.

A competing site has a similar cheat detection system and supposedly it works really well.  There has been some drama over it, but supposedly not even grandmaster games match the engine more than 85% or so, so it is somewhat easy (over a large sample size of games) to catch cheaters.

 

Of course, the key to the whole process is that there has to be a unbiased and knowledgable board of review. 

calvinhobbesliker wrote: what if they're just a really really good player, and then they get banned?

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 Also, computers tend to play vastly different from humans. Computers are near perfect tactically, but they lack on the strategy aspects of the game. Also, computers are obviously devoid of any real creativity. The best human chess players incorporate strategy and creativity into their games, so the likelyhood that a human and a computer would make a lot of the same moves outside of obvious moves and openings is very very slim.