but none of them knew they were robots!

I've recently been thumbing through the posts of the more masterful players on this site.  There has been a common thread:  insecurity concerning cheaters!

To specifically define cheater: one who uses a programmed synthetic proxy in order to create the illusion of a master chess player!

okay.  i'm wondering... if this person (said cheater), is truly posing in place of a machine. This 'said machine', obeying the rules of chess, simply having superior processing power in comparison to a human, is in no way any less of an adversary in relation to its ranking and gameplay in totem than any master or grandmaster.  The only "cheating" that is occuring is one pathetic individual who is hopelessly and quite possibly perpetually insecure to the point of insanity to hide behind such a paltry mask as a chess program. 

If somebod(ie)'s cheating by means of a silicon proxy, screw 'em. At the end of the day, when they are alone at night trying to sleep, they know they are worthless.  The computer was created in an attempt to mirror the complexities of the human mind.  If one is ashamed that their mind is inferior to others and subsequently hides behind a program, then they are a person that one would not one to contest with in the first place.

in that circumstance, the chess program has honor that the human does not.

honor thy program! through defeat, knowledge is gained. pay no attention to the hairless monkey behind the curtain.

it does not know it is also a machine.