Can You Catch A Chess Cheater?

Can you catch a chess cheat? I am leading a team of researchers at the University of Queensland to run a study to find out how well humans can detect chess cheating. We’ve launched a survey where you can try your luck at guessing which games were played by players who cheated with engine assistance. For each of the seven games (played by real players, with real cheating!), you’ll be given the moves, the evaluations graph, and the move times, like in the figure below.

You’ll also have the chance to get your username on the results Leaderboard, which will be published on the Chessable blog. The top scorers will not only be crowned as the “world’s best chess cheat detectors”, but will also win cash prizes sponsored by the Chessable Research Awards.

The research team and I will use the results of the study to understand how—and how well—people detect cheating, as well as what sort of characteristics make for a good detector.

Take the Survey!

A Note From Chess.com Community Director IM Kassa Korley

After you've lost a tough game, think about it for a moment before you rush to report someone—did your opponent cheat, or did you just lose? Tilt is real and our first reaction after a game is typically emotional and not rational!

If you feel convinced someone is cheating, you can click on or hover over someone's username, click the three dots, and then the icon with an exclamation mark that says "Report User." After doing so, you can cite cheating, and then submit!