Please do not report this to mods. It's important to raise awareness about these kinds of things, and I want as many people to see it as possible/
Unfounded and Slanderous Accusations by chess.com
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OK.....
I actually agree a lot with this post. I can relate to the last paragraph - I used to just enjoy chess but now, whenever I score a big upset or get a high CAPS score I instinctively think of cheating accusations. It's not fun and chess.com needs to address it.
May 2, 2020
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#5
There are two examples of false positives in the OP. A cheating algorithm that detects cheating "within a few moves" is guaranteed to create many false positives - it just follows logically.
I agree that it's their site, and their choice to decide who's in and who's out, but a decision to ban slanders people's reputations, especially those of prominent titled players, and that should NOT be chess.com's decision.
May 2, 2020
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#7
The false positives I found were just the two I could think of off the top of my head. There was an incident a while ago in Titled Tuesday, I think, when a player was banned for beating Hikaru in a highly theoretical line. I'm sure there are many others.
If you look at the game I posted with the computer line, those moves are not obvious at all, yet a human found it over the board in a 3 min blitz game (I was watching). This would be a perfect example of a "telling sequence", resulting in another false positive and another unfairly ruined reputation.
May 2, 2020
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#8
This is certainly not a discussion that is allowed in the general forums.
If you want to discuss, post in the following club.
https://www.chess.com/club/cheating-forum
May 2, 2020
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#9
See also
Chess.com doesn't do "false positives" - anyone can appeal an account closure for Fair Play, but if there's no human error (very unlikely), Chess.com is willing to back its decisions in a court of law, which is why they're actually conservative when it comes to closing accounts for Fair Play violations.
May 3, 2020
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#10
For those who are following this thread, @EscapeArtist25 reposted it in the Cheating Forum where it's seen extensive discussion. Feel free to join the Cheating Forum if you wish to follow the ongoing discussion:
https://www.chess.com/club/cheating-forum
https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/unfair-cheating-accusations-by-chess-com
I recently received the following letter from Danny Rensch:
In the context of some other cheat-related events that have happened recently, I find this extremely concerning. While I understand the chess.com team's commitment to finding and closing cheaters on chess.com, as well as the grave threat that cheaters pose to the online chess community, chess.com is going too far in their attempts to catch any and all cheating on their site. The number of false positives is alarmingly high, and chess.com needs to pay close attention to the negative atmosphere and stigma they are creating.
Two things in the Rensch's letter were particularly concerning. First, Rensch's claim that a recent algorithmic breakthrough has led to chess.com's ability to detect cheating within a few moves. This is clearly impossible, and it will create many, many false positives. Purely by random chance, any human player, especially a strong one, is perfectly capable of replicating a short series of computer moves under any circumstances. Take this blitz game that I watched, for example, played over the board: (I'm not naming the players for fear of chess.com accusing them for "cheating").
Whether it was by luck or an extremely precise and accurate calculation, a human player of 2224 FIDE strength was able to find the entire sequence and perfectly capitalize on a winning advantage in less than 3 minutes. Yet I'm sure that chess.com's algorithm, given its capabilities to "identify cheating within a few moves" would flag this as cheating. Chess.com has gone too far in its attempts to catch cheaters, which has resulted in too many false positives and the slandering of those who were completely innocent.
To make matters worse, the chess.com fair play team refuses to share a single detail about their cheat detection algorithm. While this seems necessary to secure it from cheaters, it also prevents the innocent from challenging their findings and having a chance to defend themselves. Chess.com refuses to bear any responsibility for the mistakes made by its cheating algorithm, preferring to destroy the reputation of innocent players without looking back.
What kind of damage has this caused? Clearly, the people whose accounts were unfairly closed by chess.com have had their reputations ruined. Instead of simply closing the accounts, chess.com humiliates the account holder by placing a cheater label next to the account and keeping it there forever. This would work if their cheating algorithm were 100% accurate, but it isn't, and to risk the unjust slander of a person's reputation is unacceptable. Among Titled Players, the damage is even worse. These are people, who, according to chess.com itself, "have dedicated their lives to the game and bring a tremendous benefit to the chess community." Yet the same people are being victimized by chess.com's faulty cheat detection algorithm.
To give a few examples, there was Akshat Chandra, a GM who was banned after a win against Hikaru (game link:https://www.chess.com/live/game/1592293557?fbclid=IwAR2Du88x75kcNtz_MYG8IEjsjpZ72Z7gtssyBDdIy4XVeOjzol83db5Dpkg). All of Chandra's "Komodo Moves" in the game were well-known theory. Chandra is now widely regarded as innocent, but his reputation will always be tainted by the shadow of cheating accusations.
As a second example, there is chess.com user truly_adarsh (FIDE 2115), who was unfairly accused of cheating after defeating a 2600 GM (game link: www.chess.com/live/game/4743347138?username=truly_adarsh). If you look at the game, black clearly wasn't cheating: he won off a blunder by the 2600 GM in a winning position. Black was on a video call the entire game and didn't even leave to go to the bathroom. To date, chess.com has not admitted to their wrongs and continues to smear this man's reputation. I encourage everyone to look at this link: which goes into detail about the incident.
Chess.com needs to seriously consider the atmosphere they are creating, not only on their website, but in the global online chess community. I used to analyze my online blitz games with CAPS, and I would be happy when I scored above 98, as it meant I played a great game. Now, I only hope that it doesn't get flagged by chess.com's algorithm for cheating. When I defeat strong players, especially IMs and GMs, my happiness is reserved - I'm proud of myself for beating a very strong player, but this is overshadowed by my fear of a cheating accusation. By tackling cheating in such an irresponsible way, chess.com destroys the community feel and the celebration of chess that online sites are supposed to create. Instead, the atmosphere is toxic: if I beat you, I cheated, especially if I played an amazing game and/or you were a very strong player. I really hope chess.com takes a few steps back, recognizes the problems that they are creating, and strives to find a better, less damaging solution to the plague that is online cheating.