Chess.com FAQs and Discussion on Cheating

And yet most people don't actually purchase or view pornography. A large number do, of course, but a much larger majority don't. So it is with the (so-called online) chess here... which I plan on stopping playing once my two current games are finished, largely because once you get to a certain rating threshhold, which Erik seems to have identified fairly well, the proportion of cheaters starts skewing upwards very quickly. I don't have pevidence of this really, more gut feelings. However, it seems to me that the live chess is much less plagued (possibly because I haven't been so fortunate there and lucked/database-built my way into such a miraculous rating), so I'm going to continue doing that, possibly TT, forum-posting, and vote chess. Good luck to all the non-cheating onliners out there - it's certainly possible for you to win at high levels, but you will need the luck.

Live chess is even more plagued than online chess, if you play 3 0  and longer time controls. If you play 1 0, probably then it's OK, likely you will not encounter a cheater. The problem is that below 10 0 time control, you can hardly call it chess.

I find it hard to think that a computer-user could do all that well at 3 0 unless they'd developed some interface with the software. It's just going to take too long to copy the moves over, give it five seconds to think, then make their move, EVERY move. They of course probably don't need much more time than that, but I haven't found it to be too much of a problem, at least for me. Actually, with such time limits, I usually see my mistakes before my opponenet moves. I'd also argue that Blitz chess has much much much more in common with normal-time-controlled OTB chess than "online chess" does.

You can cheat very well 3 0. Here is a chess.com GM (fortunately banned now, after cheating in only 1000 games):

http://www.chess.com/members/view/bigcapa

I played bliz a lot, but except for being funny, I found no resemblence with standard OTB. The point is that in blitz you don't have time to think, you just make some moves based on experience and instant position evaluation.

Your pointing to a member who was banned for cheating who posted good results in live does nothing to prove that it's possible to cheat in 3 0. I'd guess that those blitz games were, in general, as close to the 15 minute "long" barrier as possible.

As for you finding no semblance between blitz and standard OTB... your loss. I definitely do have time to think in blitz games, though generally I don't like the super-short games as much, but find them to be nicely different at times. Furthermore, I wasn't trying to say that blitz and standard OTB are the same thing or even similar really, only that they are closer to each other then online "chess". Also, if you completely don't care about this site any more, and have completely given up on it, why do you keep coming back to the forums?

Wandering: I gave up playing here and hoping that this site does honestly fight against cheating. Other than that, chess.com is OK. Especially the learning materials here are really good.

i notice players taking a long time to make their move eventhough their are in a mating position.some will keep you waiting for hours eventhough they remain on line.they should be kind enough to send a message to say thats their last move rather than keep you waiting.sometime i suspected cheating when same occures.

I had a feeling good pianists were cheating at online chess...  

I realy don't know how it's possible to cheat on 3min,except he knows how to alter the time but then you'll notice and report him.What can you say for a player that has live rating 1250(blitz and long),loses from almost everyone and online 2150,strong play almost unbeatable???

If that's the case, well the only reason I can see that you would continue to spend so much time on this particular forum and others where cheating is mentioned is that you are now just patronising the site for the sake of it..

Or maybe he is being paid to do so... you never know! 

Fair question and well posed.

Hello richie_and_oprah. No we have not abandoned this project. However, we are working out a few kinks at the moment. We hope to update this very soon. Thank you for your patience.

I really hope you that you have not abandoned the project because I'm waiting for a month almost for my report,and one of my team members told me he had reported his opponent from one of our team matches(team Macedonia),I looked at this player and I'm very sure he is right,as well as my report and for almost a month there is no response.Please hurry a little bit,because we can't hold our games much longer and after we lose(for me the tournament and for my team points)it will be very big injustice to see that after that those user's account had been closed,and we reported one or two months earlier.

thanks for your understanding

I'm very suspicious that one of my current opponents is using computer assistance...

However, if it's taking one month to get an answer or any action from staff, I'd rather resign the games and not play him anymore than wait for an answer...

I wish Chess.com could be more clear and specific with its paying customers about how the site detect and punish against possible cheaters... 

There are some very good reasons for not disclosing the detection methodology.

Also, although I'm not 100% sure about this, I believe that the only indication you'll ever see as a result of the report is the subjects account getting closed if they've in fact been found to be cheating (i.e. negative results aren't disclosed).

As a result of this, if their account hasn't been closed you can conclude that the results could have been either inconclusive or not indicative of cheating, or, as you've suggested, the investigation could still be ongoing.

well maybe you're right but is someone with 2150 online rating has 1250 live rating and loses from almost everyone is not suspicious than I don't know what to say anymore.It's obvious that on online games is using some program,and he doesn't have time to use it on live chess so there he shows his real qualities

As a matter of fact,this guy probably already knows that is reported because I'm delaying the games for a month,so I suggest to investigate the games that he plays with me and the games he played before my accusation

This is simply not always the case -- case in point, take a look at my live rating: it's abysmal.

The fact is that I'm conditioned, through many repeated turn-based games here, to slow play.  Given enough time, and I have enough in turn based, I will typically find very strong moves by myself -- no outside assistance.  Put me into a ten minute game and I blunder like a redneck in the oval office.

So, suspicious?  Perhaps.  Conclusive?  Absolutely not.