CHEATING IN CHESS - EXPOSED

"In chess, there is only one mistake: over-estimation of your opponent. All else is either bad luck or weakness."

Savielly Tartakower

# Introduction -

Hi chessmates,

Welcome to my blog, where we learn several concepts discuss matches and understand chess in a profound sense. The ultimate goal of this page is to make you aware of Theories, News, History and masterpieces of games by Grand Masters.

# Topic for today  -

Today we will discuss the unacceptable side of chess, where people for their mental satisfaction or social intelligence status cheats for increasing their rating. Cheating can be due to many reasons and in many ways. In any case, it's dreadful. Today I will make sure that you will be aware of all the things which are considered cheating as per chess.com and also with some backstories where cheating had occurred OTB.

# Why is it IMPORTANT -

It is critical to understand that chess.com has its security system tied up to catch these cheaters. Sooner or later, these people will get banned. If you don't believe, here is proof of how strict chess.com is when it comes to cheating,

In anyways it's demoralizing for people who put their effort and hard work for growing in chess. In any case, if you get intuition after any match that you have been against a cheater, you can see the following blog and follow your checklist to conclude whether to report a person or not.

What counts as cheating on Chess.com?

# Engines -

The use of an engine is a significant source of the understanding position, but to use the "Engine" in a "live game" to find the best response is considered cheating.

# Tablebases - 

"Tablebases" are chess databases that contain every possible move for "endgames of up to 7 pieces. "These sequences will always lead to a win when a win is possible and are for that reason, the same as asking an engine to analyse a position. As a result, "Tablebases are considered cheating!"

# Help from other people -

Asking others to solve positions for you is also considered as cheating this may be of the form that your friend is spectating you and helping you out. There is also the case where you give your account to someone else to play.

# Fixing game results - 

Arranging games, playing with multiple accounts or intentionally losing are also against the rules!

• These are some top categories or ways which result in cheating and banning of your account.

Review of the site by members

Though legal and practical considerations prevent Chess.com from revealing the full set of data, metrics and tracking used to evaluate games in our fair-play tool, we can say that at the core of Chess.com’s system is a statistical model that evaluates the probability of a human player matching an engine’s top choices, and surpassing the confirmed clean play of some of the greatest chess players in history.

# GM Eric Hansen:

"The agreement I signed for Chess.com prevents me from writing on the specifics, but I can say that I was more than impressed (and pleasantly surprised) with some of the things Chess.com's fair-play team showed me. They are as capable of keeping the game clean as anything I've ever seen."

# GM Hikaru Nakamura:
"Having seen Chess.com's system in great detail, both the algorithms used and the 'team at work' (when I was on-site at the Chess.com Meetups), I can attest fully that Chess.com's approach is advanced and far ahead of what I know other websites use to catch cheaters."

# GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave:
"I was more than pleased with both the standards held, the investment applied, and the approach taken by Chess.com towards its cheat detection systems. The quality and integrity of fair play has never been measured more accurately than in the hands of Roland, Gerard and the entire crew!"

# GM Robert Hess:
"Even before becoming involved with Chess.com's cheat detection system, I was impressed by the site's dedication to upholding fair play. I can personally attest to the diligence and prowess of Roland and his team; they have spent countless hours innovating and fine-tuning their algorithms to categorically prevent misconduct, and have successfully implemented an objective system that reduces human speculation."

How Common Is Cheating on Chess.com?

According to chess.com, cheating is much less common than you think. Their research shows less than 0.2% of players cheat on the website.

Here are the daily averages of closures:

800 for chess engineuse
120 for sandbagging, rating manipulations, and other cheating tactics
Compared to the 70,000 new users who join the platform every day, these averages are pretty low.

History of cheating

Article 11.1 of the FIDE laws of chess states: "The players shall take no action that will bring the game of chess into disrepute."

FIDE protocol -

FIDE has covered the use of electronic devices and manipulating competitions in its Anti-Cheating Regulations, which must be enforced by the arbiter. The use of electronic devices by players is strictly forbidden. Further, the FIDE Arbiter's manual contains detailed anti-cheating guidelines for arbiters. Online play is covered separately.

# Rules controversy

Inarkiev was involved in a rules controversy at the 2017 World Blitz Championship during his game against Magnus Carlsen. With both players only having seconds left on the clock, Carlsen checked Inarkiev, who then ignored the check and played an illegal move putting Carlsen in check. Carlsen moved his own king away from the attack, prompting Inarkiev to summon an arbiter to ask them to declare him the winner because Carlsen had made an illegal move. The arbiter awarded Inarkiev the victory, but the decision was quickly overturned by the chief arbiter, who ruled that Carlsen’s move was not technically illegal even though it resulted in an illegal position and invited the participants to continue the game from the position in which it was stopped. Inarkiev refused to continue, leaving Carlsen as the winner; Inarkiev's subsequent appeal was dismissed

#  Bathroom SCAM

On September 28, 2006, the rest day between games 4 and 5, Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov complained to the match organizers and the press about Kramnik's repeated visits to the bathroom. He noted that the bathrooms are the only place not under audio or video surveillance, and called the frequency of the breaks "strange, if not suspicious". Danailov suggested that Topalov would abandon the match if the concerns were not addressed.

#  Sinquefield Cup controversy

During the Sinquefield Cup in September 2022, a controversy arose involving chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen, then world champion, and Hans Niemann. Carlsen, after surprisingly losing in their third-round matchup, dropped out of the tournament. Many interpreted his withdrawal as Carlsen tacitly accusing Niemann of having cheated. In their next tournament meetup, an online tournament, Carlsen abruptly resigned after one move, perplexing observers again. It became the most serious scandal about cheating allegations in chess in years, and garnered significant attention in the news media worldwide. After the fifth round of the Sinquefield Cup, Niemann gave a lengthy interview addressing the controversy, in which he admitted to cheating in online chess in the past, but denied cheating in the game with Carlsen or in any over-the-board game. Three weeks later, Carlsen released a statement saying that Niemann's behavior during their Sinquefield Cup game, taken together with earlier suspicions, had convinced him to withdraw from the tournament. Carlsen expressed the belief that Niemann had cheated more often and more recently than he had admitted, and noted that his own recent actions show that he does not want to play chess with Niemann.

Chess.com removed Niemann from their platform in the days after Carlsen's withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup. FIDE, the international chess governing body, rebuked Carlsen for his actions but at the same time acknowledged his concerns about cheating in chess. FIDE later announced an investigation into Carlsen's claims of alleged cheating and Niemann's response. Chess.com released an interim report summarising their evaluation of Niemann's games and their estimation of his online cheating on their platform. Many chess players and journalists commented on the issue, some supporting Carlsen's suspicions in one way or another, others criticizing him for his tournament withdrawal and for making allegations without producing evidence. Some expressed the belief that Niemann had not cheated in his game against Carlsen. Most commentators expressed their desire for strict and consistent cheating controls in chess tournaments.

On 20 October 2022, Niemann filed a lawsuit against Carlsen, his company Play Magnus Group, Chess.com, Chess.com Chief Chess Officer Daniel Rensch, and grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura for defamation and unlawful collusion. The complaint contained allegations that statements in the Chess.com report had falsely accused Niemann of a more extensive history of cheating in the past than he had publicly admitted, and further alleged that those statements were part of a malicious conspiracy to defame Niemann.

# 2010 FIDE Olympiad Tournament SCAM

In the 2010 FIDE Olympiad Tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk, three French players were caught in a scheme to use a computer program to decide moves. Their plan involved one player, Cyril Marzolo, following the tournament at home and using the computer program to decide the best moves. He would send the moves by SMS to the team coach, Arnaud Hauchard, who would then stand or sit at various tables as a signal to the player, Sébastien Feller, to make a certain move. Sébastien Feller was given a two-year and nine months suspension, Cyril Marzolo was given a one-year and six-month suspension, and Arnaud Hauchard was given a three-year suspension by the FIDE Ethics Commission. Unlike other cases, each player involved was a legitimate Grandmaster or International Master. None of the other players on the team knew of this or were involved.

# Mobile phone

At the 2014 Iasi Open, Wesley Vermeulen was caught cheating by consulting a mobile phone in the toilet, admitted his offense, and was eventually banned for one year by both the Dutch chess federation and FIDE.

How to identify the cheater

# Recent account -  
If the profile is created recently and there has been unusually rapid growth. It's a high chance that the person is cheating.
# Time usage -
Generally, To understand a person's strength, we can judge them by their opening strength. The time they take to play simple moves in the opening and even in critical positions. 
# Weird moves -
This is part of intuition. We all have a general idea of most possible move in our position. If you find all three side plays and a 4-5 lines deep plan for positional play, it's a high chance that the person is using the engine.
# Engine Analysis -
This is the predominant method where it becomes crystal clear. We can see the top 3-4 lines of the engine and match it with the moves played. This will make you clear the use of the engine in your game.
# Accuracy -
Generally, Irregular accuracy is followed by most cheaters. If you notice that the person is playing at the accuracy of 90 and suddenly drops to 78, and again after two or three, Matches he is at 92-93. It's a clear indication of faking accuracy to not be suspect.
# Bad openings -
Most cheaters also have this tactic to blunder or play a bad opening and then use the engine to make accuracy less in review.

# Conclusion -

My ultimate goal was to understand the cheat protocol by chess.com. I was running my speed run for bullet when I found four to five cheat detection. Eventually, I reached 1499, But it made me study the content related to cheating which is the reason why I tried to concurrent all the content together.
In all sense, I know cheating makes us distrust the system or site we are playing on. It is understandable that cheating is common in any gaming platform but the cheat detection method is very precise in chess.com. 

I hope I am successful in providing all the information related to cheating here. Next, I will post related to theoretical content or start the "END GAME SERIES."
till then,
Lets us all grow at chess together

...The End...