I've heard that chess.com closes several accounts daily because of cheating, as they have got some means to find out about engines working in the background during a game. So I have recently bought Fritz 12, but I do not intend to use it for cheating but to improve my skills and analyse before and after games etc. But how can the guys of chess.com know that I use Fritz 12, but not for cheating, i.e. in case I've got the program opened during the game?! Do they ban people when they catch them just having fritz or rybka opened in the background? 'Cause I really wouldn't want something like that to happen :\...

It is always safest to shut down any chess software before playing Internet games.  Better safe than sorry. 

If the chess.com guys are actually obtaining information about what is going on, on your computer, then I would consider it hacking, and report them at once!

But I think, that they pick out (perhaps random) games and see if the person(s) are playing at their level, or if they play at a level way beyond their skill-level. I don't even think one game is enough to ban someone, because there is the possibility that the player(s) are 1) lucky, i.e. making the moves without realizing their profoundness 2) they may have spent more time analyzing this particular game than they usually do.

It doesn't work that way percivalfox.

I know that ICC has software that detects and flags accounts that are task-switching a lot during games, and also that they know if you are running chess software in the background whilst playing chess. I dont know if chess.com uses this same method, but rather safe than sorry, i would not use fritz whilst playing here.

@gumpty:

I have chess.com open in one tab most of the day, whilst I work on other things (running simulations and writing), this must mean that I task-switch a lot (?). I also have other online chess places open in other tabs at the same time, and several scientific databases; does switching between these tabs count as task-switching as well?? 

task switching is task switching, it wont matter what the other program is. It only causes any concern however IF you are task switching DURING a live game.

Chess.com uses no spyware!

They do not know if you're running an engine on your PC or not. That is not their method of detection. They will analyse your games for things such as engine matchup rates. You will not have any problems with an engine running on your PC! 

Oh okay =) I almost never play live games..

@Nytik: I figured it would be something like that..

well nytik, im only going off what i have been told by an ex admin on the site :)

I have been an administrator on a chess server for quite a while, and have worked closely both in and with the computer buster team. Most the software won't even register if you switch to the Internet browser, or a word processing program.  You can do that 39 times a move and the software won't pick it up.  It's ONLY when there is a chess application (Fritz, Chesspartner, Winboard, Arena, etc) running that the bots become alerted and make a note of it. 

So, if a player is winning a LOT of standard games, and we see they task switched say 34 of 36 moves, and has Chessbase running, things are pretty cut and clear in most cases.

Instant messengers, music programs, word processors, Internet browsers (as long as they aren't on Chessgames.com or something...) and most other programs won't even register.  Just be careful, folks! It's easy to get flagged for cheating if you forget to turn the Chessmaster off!  :)

so they  do spot task switching a chess program then :)

Yep, surely they do!  :)

Thanks a lot for all the comments, I think I'm wise enough now to know that I ought to be careful... :]

Guys, we'd rather not have discussion of cheating in the public forum. Please take the discussion here => http://www.chess.com/groups/home/cheating-forum .

For anyone that has basic questions about cheating, and how chess.com handles it, please see this page: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/chesscom-policy-on-cheating?page=1 .

How would they be able to differentiate what you're task switching to in live chess, which is just web-based? I guess it could be done with a dedicated program we download, and in so doing agree to it monitoring other running programs while it's being used. I'm no expert, but I'd have thought that otherwise all that could be registered on live chess is the task switching itself, rather than what you're switching to.