I literally don't understand, did everyone start cheating or have a sudden jump in skill? I used to consistently maintain a 1400-1500 rating and now I am getting stomped by 1200s, something has changed and it is not me. I am playing the same chess I always played.
Everyone at some point or another will start to lose their marbles. It's the name of the game. Nobody can maintain it forever.
Could it be ... some have found a loop hole in the AI algorithms that Chess.com is using to detect "What we can't talk about?" who knows..... People are going to do what we are not supposed to talk about... just a fact of life.
That stated ... I just had a game that has given me pause for cause. At the current level I'm playing... anything can happen... that's why I'm going to chalk it up to bad technique on my part. The pause for cause though... In a Rapid... I'm out playing my opponent, for 2/3rds of the game and my opponent is playing slow and sucking up 2/3 of the his clock. He get's down to 4 min on the clock and starts owning the board & expends very little of his remaining time. On reviewing the game.. around move 38. that's when it started... My opponent's play starts getting better and better, degrading any advantage I had.. till I finally cracked (with a lots of time left on my clock... head slap! ) I first analyze all my games with a board, no computer... just pencil and paper.. noting where I think I went wrong, ideas I missed etc. Then I put it up on a computer... and analyze with it (this is when the computer blasts apart my good ideas and drives home how bad I played) ... I did notice where the game got difficult was according to my computer where my opponent made some exceptionally strong moves ( right where my opponent stop sucking up time on his clock... was it a coincidence? did we reach a position where he had a a really good grasp of the position and knew what to do? Did I play really bad around here and he played really good... Every squirrel gets a nut once in a while It wasn't like he played the engines' 1st choice say 4 moves in a row... more like a series of 5-8 moves waffling in and out of in the top 3-5... All that said.. at this time. I'm chalking it up to getting out-played in a winning position, while transitioning into an endgame.
The good take away was it made me analyze the game deeper than I normally do. (always a plus)
I feel you. I have a few unusual openings that usually give me an early advantage.
On the 10 min, often people will take a long pause after they lose a rook or even a minor piece. I get impatient, their next move is the top move and I move quickly because I've also already thought through my options. That when the castle crumbles and they come down move after move with the top move. It's really frustrating and makes me avoid the 10min, even though is the most pleasant game, if it wasn't for those people.
And yes, it definitely is more comfy around the 1600. If I have a losing streak and fall around the 1400/1500 suddenly everyone is Kasparov. But that's also because I'm tilted and generally have a quick and bad opening.
I think you guys should try making it so your opponents can't be any higher than 25 points higher than you, and 25 points lower than you. This way you play others who are closer to
Not a bad suggestion, but I prefer (-25, +infinity) because of how well I play against those who are higher rated than me. Sometimes it is hard to find a game though.."
I use the same config. Helps you improve your game and your elo. Higher stakes if you win, lower stakes if you lose. If you have a 50% win rauto, you're going up. And youre learning from stronger players . Sometimes I fall into clear traps just to learn them.
Short answer.... smurfs. A lot of smurfs!
This is ofc my only account and i respect the toss of chess.com. lul
With that said, can you link to ONE game where your opponent cheated and has not been banned? I'm happy to be proven wrong.
The point I am making is lower players are not meant to play better than higher rated players, not when you are talking between 500-600 elo, that's a lot of difference. It might happen now and again, I agree, but not constantly like I am seeing. If they are using one of these new app things, I have seen on YT, you won't be able to prove anything. Anyway no one seems to be that bothered whether people are cheating, so why should I care, let them.
First of all, ignore the request to link to a game where you think your opponent cheated. It's not allowed to accuse players on the public forums.
Besides, the point is that you're not capable of determining whether your opponents have cheated, unless it's blatantly obvious.
But why are you engaging in this conversation at all? You're only playing unrated games, in which case it's impossible to make any judgment at all. If you play like a 2000 it may feel to your opponents that your cheating, because they see you as an 800. But who knows what your level is? That 800 beginner rating could be 100s of elo too high or too low. All your opponents decided not to play competitively, but rather play unrated. Whatever their reason, you should expect them to not play according to their rating.
I have the same experience as the first poster.
to me the main categorie of cheaters below 2000 points (meaning they do not cheat all the games) are those that start cheating after loosing elo points, to get back to their "normal" level of points
a second group is the bunch of psychos that use on line chess to start gloating after or even while the game... and to be able to gloat you need to win...
not getting caught is very easy, it is sufficient to not have the engine open on the same pc, and also important to not choose the prime move all the time, the cheaters can easily even incorporate worse but still winning moves to "proof " that there is no engine involved...
not getting caught is very easy, it is sufficient to not have the engine open on the same pc, and also important to not choose the prime move all the time, the cheaters can easily even incorporate worse but still winning moves to "proof " that there is no engine involved...
People under 2 000 rating do not know which move is easy to find and which isn't. They slip up easily and get caught. For instance, they will play a move that is not so logical very fast, and then try to hide it by "thinking" on taking your queen in 2 moves, which is supposedly why they played the move in the first place. Every position is different, and if cheater chooses 3rd best move instead of first, that can be fatal for him instead of helping him cover his tracks. Sometimes the best move is much more logical than the 2nd or 3rd best move. This alone will not be their doom, but this will have a snowball effect and get them caught in the long run.
And sometimes a single move is enough, let alone game to get caught. I am not joking, a few years ago, I had a guy play his first game against me, and was banned afterwards. I simply presented my analysis of the game and that was it. Based on my games against engine users, my experience is telling me that people who cheat and got to like 1 500 or so, are very easy to catch.
Most of them are comical in some way. For instance, the guy demolishes me, and then doesn't know how to play en passant, or when they don't play the best opening, then find positionally bad idea that works by a tactical thread, which is of course almost impossible to see at that level.
And even if they fool the system for a time, they almost always inevitably fail. Some will slip through the cracks for a while, but in most cases not for long. Especially today when everyone is suspicious of everyone.
Basically, the better the player is, and the more he knows about the game, he is more difficult to catch. And yet, even grandmasters get caught from time to time. Someone below 2 000 wouldn't stand a chance most of the time, even if he tries to be smart about it.
People under 2 000 rating do not know which move is easy to find and which isn't. They slip up easily and get caught. ....
I disagree,
Every time i lost from a real strong player OTB he said at start you played well, which is most certtainly true,
against aan engine you will fall behind, even if you do not blunder.
After falling behind enough the engine has often a lot of moves each of them still strong enough to win the game for sure, at this stage the cheater can start simulating to blunder also, but less than the adversary and win the game filled with proof that he did not use top moves every move...
People under 2 000 rating do not know which move is easy to find and which isn't. They slip up easily and get caught. ....
I disagree,
Every time i lost from a real strong player OTB he said at start you played well, which is most certtainly true,
against aan engine you will fall behind, even if you do not blunder.
After falling behind enough the engine has often a lot of moves each of them still strong enough to win the game for sure, at this stage the cheater can start simulating to blunder also, but less than the adversary and win the game filled with proof that he did not use top moves every move...
Playing like that in the opening, enough to have a winning game and then playing sub optimal moves, it is as funny as those who play a bad opening trying to hide themselves that way.
If they do it all the time, they would be caught very soon, as nobody on sub 2000 level has super GM preparation. On top of that, they would need to know which sub optimal move is normal to be played, and which is more difficult to play than the best move.
And if they do not do it all the time, there will be many inconsistencies in their games. You will see one game where there is a normal 1 300 rated person playing inaccuracies and blunders, and the second game where he has super GM preparation and then odd sub optimal moves. Sure, you can have an off game or a great game here and there, but this would be as if 2 persons are playing these games, that is not believable.
All of this will reveal them. They might fool the system for some time, but usually not for long. All it takes is one person who lost, look through that game, and some other games for a bit.
Any way you cut it, chances are, such a player does not have a long future in front of him.
The same happened to me. In a few weeks I fell from 1300 to 1000... What is going on?
Well more people means more good players means less elo I dropped all the way to 1800 cause of it but got back to 2000 in a couple weeks so cause more good players
I agree
Everyone has good and bad days in chess. Factors like fatigue, distraction or emotional state can affect your gameplay and lead to unexpected results.