How to catch alt accounts.

Today I will 1st explain what an alt is and the chess.com rules about alts.  2nd I will give some ways to catch alts. And 3rd I will be looking at an account I suspect of being an alt to see if it is really an alt.

When on chess.com most members have 1 account. They use this account most/all of the time. Some members however decide that, for various reasons, they need another account. Some times they need it for normal reasons like another account for chess, streaming, for fun, ect. However some people make alts for much worse reasons. Sometimes people will make alts for destroying clubs, getting information out of people, and other nasty reasons. These alts can be nasty and the sooner you find out about them the better. Now before we get into how to catch these alts we must talk about the chess.com rules about alts. Chess.com states that each member may have a max of 1 alt. They also state that this alt must be approved by chess.com staff. Despite this however most people ignore this rule and make many unapproved alts. 

So the 1st thing to look at is when the account was made. If it was made recently and is already involved in a lot of social stuff it is a good sign it is an alt. You should never really trust accounts under 1 month old. The next thing to do is look at when the account comes to talk with you. If it comes right after a fight or right after you block somebody and wants a job in a club involved or something they may well be an alt made to destroy the club. If you are still not really sure look at what clubs and friends it has. If it is in a small group of clubs that are all related and has a few friends that are also a related it is might be an alt. Another thing is that alts almost never play chess and are made only to do things in social clubs. Look at the how many games it has played. Also look at the rating and compare it to whoever you think it might be owned by. These are a few of the best way to catch alts. Another, though less reliable way, is to look at how it acts. If it seems to know more than it says in very well might be an alt.

So now we will look at the account @The_Top_Spy. I think this account is an alt of @Davman123. So we see it was made Feb 8 2022. So pretty recent. Next the number of games. only 1 game. Next all the clubs it is in were involved in the war between Team Magma and Knight Forks Club. When it talked to me it asked me many strange questions and convinced me it was an alt. Now I must remember I do not know for sure this is an alt so I must not treat him as though I know but I also must not tell him anything important. 

I hoped this helped you all. If you wish to support me join my club Knight Forks Club. and follow this blog.

@joeltuininga.