Chess.com FAQs and Discussion on Cheating

Is that what that means?  *DOH*!  I've given that in genuine recognition of good play before, I hope no one took it as an insult...

I'd like to ask something to the experts out there!

I'm sure Erik and his team have good methods to detect somebody suspicious of cheating in this site...

However, as far as I can read on the posts here, a player will become "suspicious" if all or the majority of the moves he is making match the first choice move of a strong chess engine.

To detect if someone is cheating, I'd certainly need the help of a chess engine, as my chess skills are not good enough for games where +2200 players are involved...

But my question is - and apologies if somebody have asked this before - is it possible that a "wise cheater" would use second or third choice moves from a chess engine where it doesn't affect much the outcome or the balance of the position and so it wouldn't be considered a cheater here??

Or even maybe "part-time cheaters", that don't use chess assistance all the time during a game??

Just curious if that can happen, because I've lost a few games already to players on that "cheaters list" Erik posted here before and I really don't mind about the lost rating points, as some others here...

In fact, I thought I played well against them and finding out they were using computer assistance in those games, made me feel even better about my chess skills! 

Reginald Phlatterspog was caught cheating and he had to change his name as a punishment. He was renamed Vonderslug Punt Futtock. You have been warned:)

I think that those who always make the first move of an engine are caught and banned. Those who make sometimes a weaker move (like the second or third choice of the engine) are reverred as the best players on chess.com

Of course I don't say anything about blindly matching. It is obvious that in some sharp positions there might be only one good move, and it is not surprising if a player finds it. There might be the case of 10-15 forced moves in a row, for instance in a pawn ending. But, many top players here exhibit matching percentages consistently much higher than any other human player in the history. Even higher than the correspondence players from before the computer era. In short, the top players at chess.com ARE the top players in the world. 

Ussually the engines are not that different, and good moves are almost always evaluated as good moves, even if not the best. Of course, at a significant depth (at least 14-15 on a normal computer these days). So, if engine X says that some move is best in a position, it is very likely that engine Y lists the exact same move among its first 3 choices. 

In some positions, there are "computer moves" and "human moves".

Strong players (I mean at least 2300 FIDE) can notice them...

Hi Eric, I want to ask if using a fake nickname such as GarryKasparov, AnatolyKarpov etc. is legal or not ? Do you close any account because of that reason?

Thanks a lot!

very interesting!!!

clear

Hi, I also have a question. If I use an Game Opening Explorer during my games, which I do, is that considered cheating? If it is, please close my account for cheating because those wins that I have I would feel I don't deserve.

Thanks,

hic2482w

It is allowed in turn based, but not in Live.  This is all outlined clearly in Erik's original post.

I wish there were a way to only see Erik's posts in this thread.

I second that LOUDLY !

RaO: With all due respect, I think my idea is better :-)

I don't want have to check two threads. I want the data to be in one place, with different methods to query it.

It's like on facebook, when you're looking through a thread, you can show it "my friends only" or "just the original poster" etc.

It would probably be easier to navigate the confirmed cheaters list if they were added to the original list via a post edit, rather than listed in new posts.  That way if you just wanted to peruse the list of cheaters you could just go to the first page of this topic.

It would be easier but it wouldn't be as good.

Fair enough.  Suggest it here: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/chesscom-feature-request-and-wishlist-5

 Its good we have devices that stop cheating

Really? The player I reported had a top 1 match of 90%, and top 2 match of 100% (the moves in an opening database not counted). Still, using their state of the art system, chess.com clearly proved that he is not using an engine, but his enormous native talent.