The Dark Side of Online Chess

I've done a blog about the Pros and Cons of Online Chess but today I want to talk about the main problem of online chess, and that's cheating. I know I have briefly covered cheating in chess before but it's getting so bad I want to cover it a bit more. There has been tons of drama in cheating recently especially with the entire Dewa_Kipas incident. Let's get into it. 

The problem with cheating in chess is that it's so easy. When cheaters use assistance they don't realize the consequences. Chess.com has some of the best cheat detection out there, Tigran L. Petrosian was banned from the Pro Chess League after it was shown that during games he was looking down and playing some insane moves that most grandmasters cannot think of. Cheating has gotten so bad that a few of my friends have been banned after violating the fair play policy. 

Every time I play in a scholastic tournament I have the fear of playing a cheater. Many tournaments require a back cam, screen share, unmuted microphone, and some even reduce the amount of time you are allowed to go to the bathroom! Tens of thousands of accounts are being closed by fair play every month. Why are people wasting their time using an engine to play for them! They're not even playing the game! They're not seeing why chess is so great and why it is such a beautiful game. Chess is not about winning but about learning. This needs to stop. 

I've talked about the Petrosian incident but how about the more recent incident with Levy Rozman and Dewa_Kipas. I was there at the stream when this happened and at first, it just looked like Levy was playing another cheater, Levy lost the game and the account he played has gained 800 points in around 10 days. To add to that, his opponent was only playing moves every 10 seconds even if the move was obvious. A few hours later, Dewa_Kipas's account was banned. Levy was all relaxed until Dewa_Kipa's son made a post on Facebook saying Levy was a sore loser and used his fans to mass-report his father. 

That is not true. Chess.com does not ban players just because of the number of accounts that report them but because of the algorithm. The post went viral and Levy received many threats and harmful messages. Eventually, Dewa_Kipas went on Corbuzier's podcast and he played a 3 game over-the-board match against Irene Sukandar one of the strongest players in Indonesia. Dewa_Kipas lost all three games... his estimated Elo was 1127. Bruh. Cheating has become such a big thing.

Cheaters can ruin people's interest in chess. Someone may have just started to play chess but when they get paired against cheaters they may quit chess in frustration. There are many ways you can help chess.com and stop cheaters. First, when you see any suspicious account report them or send an email to chess.com support! Never cheat, it's never worth it and you'll get caught. Let's keep chess.com fun and fair, Adios.