Chess.com FAQs and Discussion on Cheating

You don't get the idea I_win_some:
(almost) nobody cares about lost points, everybody cares about lost time!!

Better late than never! 

Lost time is never found again.  But it is possible to return points.

This is fascinating...I have not been on much lately so I'm not up-to date with all the happenings. I read the list of banned players and I had the misfortune to play most of them, Anirac, BrainxPower, MirceaH just to name a few- now I understand why I was demolished. I don't consider myself a strong player, but compared to me I felt those guys were in a class of their own...

I had to laugh at ILearnedinjail getting banned for cheating.

 Being a strong player has nothing to do with it.  There's a whole psychology to playing with computer aid that is relatively easy to detect, since computer players tend to, "not make mistakes", rather than play strongly.  Almost a dead giveaway, since even GM's will make "mistakes" in every game, although they are not game-breaking errors.  We, as humans, consider those things to be "style", rather than inefficiency.

Yes, they can. 

Since cheaters have easy means to create new names, banning names they create is but a nuisance to them. I suggest chess.com ban the IP address. That way, sooner is later the cheater would run out of computers he could use to cheat.

 Isn't practical for many reasons, Chess.com mobile and internet cafes being just 2 of them.

Do you know what is my first action, when  distrust comes up, whether an opponent is using engine help or not?

I go into his game archive and look at his first games here at chess. com- This is sometimes really "illuminating"

In what way?  If they were strong to start with then they were experienced before they came here.  But I agree that if they started out as a yutz but 10-20 games later they play like a master, something strange is going on.

My second action is to control his live chess games. This is sometimes also illuminating

How do you control them?

At their quality and at the rating.- Someone who has in onlinechess over 2200, but looses in livechess against < 1200 players, is suspicious in my view.

And someone who plays in onlinechess very deep chess and overlooks in live chess often simple tactics. Who can believe it?

And so on!

ive been accused 5 rtimes cause my ratinbg went up 200in  5  days

Then you are a big cheater! lol

Up 200 here is not too surprising if you have played only a few games.  Mine went up more than that the first day with 2 wins!  The question is, what was your record before it jumped?

I didn't know if it was cheating or not! Since erik has said it was allowed, I will continue to play like this BUT I have clearly offered to close my account if that WAS considered cheating.

mauerblum: despite your cheating detection tips, I saw you played "GM" Anirac, who had an online rating of 2550 and a quick rating of 1100. How come this did not look suspicious to you?

hic2482: just stop paying attention to all the fanatics. Using books, databases or opening explorer has always been allowed and it is far from cheating. You simply get to practice some opening lines, to experiment some ideas of strong players.

panmumu: why do you exaggerate? You only played against 2 cheaters. I am sure that, if you had played half of the games here against cheaters, you would have left this site for a long time.

Thanks costelus.