I guess I know who wrote this and I am sorry for him. I am sure he chose the wrong way and that their words here are honest.
Sometimes, I feel really sorry for those players and for the good friends who remain betrayed here, however I believe the worst damage is done to themselves.
I know you will not read this but I wish you the best, and I am sorry chess.com will not count on you anymore, but I guess you knew the rules better than anybody so sooner or later, this would happen.
That is a level of maturity I would love to reach in life
How do they do it? That is, how would chess.com know one way or the other whether someone is using a program...?
I don't think the moves or win percentage would be a fair way, since some good players may make the same openings that a computer would. Not that I am tempted mind you, since that kind of defeats the purpose of playing here, just curious how chess.com polices this kind of thing.
I thnk v shud 4give him/her
That is a level of maturity I would love to reach in life
No, maturity would be to never cheat in the first place.
But I wouldn't expect a Red Sox (and probably a Patriots) fan to understand that. 
NO patriots fan here, I don't even watch football. And the fact that he accepted his punisment is more then some other people would do
honesty is always the best policy and this site has proven itself all over again for one of the reasons why it is environment-friendly.. eric, all the best for chess.com
No, maturity would be to never cheat in the first place.
Yes, I tend to agree with this. I don't think any admiration or credit should be given to this person and I don't believe this should have been made public! (just my personal opinion)
I find it strange that someone who has wronged and apologised is given more credit than those who never cross the line!
I very much appreciate this comment, and it is a touchy subject. Obviously, they don't want to have cheaters on the site, and the grief that is caused.
A lot of cheaters would do it for this reason or that, regardless of the ethics, but there is some truth we should all try to embrace on this site.
#1 - There is NO good reason to cheat. If you are going to lose, lose like a man (or a woman) and don't rely on something else to make you look like you are better than you are. One of the greatest lessons I have learned in chess was from my losses, not my wins.
#2 - It doesn't help you grow as a chess player, and you hurt others with your suspicious playing behaviours. It is pretty obvious when a person plays moves that are "unhumanlike". Please, don't waste time with such things.
#3 - Should chess.com allow him back on? Why not allow a provisional comeback? In society, if a person breaks the law, they have a chance to redeem themselves, and of course, this is a tight-knit community. But I do believe we ought to extend grace to this fellow...he did apologize, and in spite of the hurt he caused (I know - you lost points!), the hurt is greater losing a person who obviously gave a lot of effort to this site.
I know I don't have the time that I once had to give to this site. I have been able to create some wonderful openings groups that have helped to bring pleasure to others on this site, and that was my original vision - to bring something to this site that brought pleasure.
I used to have 70+ games going at one time. It was pleasurable to me for the games, but also for the people I was able to speak to - from all over the world. Admittedly, I didn't cheat when I came to a fork in the road - I resigned all my games, even one where I had a mate in 2. But that was my choice.
This fellow chose the other path, and it caused him a lot of pain. I believe he may have learned from his mistake, and that it is worthy to bring him back once more. There is no rule, that I know, that says you have to bring back every case - especially in view of their atrocious responses once they are booted. But there are exceptions to rules - and I personally would not be opposed to "him" (sorry, I don't know who Anton is) being brought back. Fine, if you want to monitor his playing style at random, that is understandable. But to excommunicate him because of cheating? Let's think about this for a minute.
No, maturity would be to never cheat in the first place.
Yes, I tend to agree with this. I don't think any admiration or credit should be given to this person and I don't believe this should have been made public! (just my personal opinion)
I find it strange that someone who has wronged and apologised is given more credit than those who never cross the line!
Sure, but have you never made a mistake that you said, "Man, I knew better than to do that?" Come on - the guy apologized...I understand maybe you don't want him back on chess.com. He made a mistake. People do that in life. Terrible mistakes, and looking back, they wish they had not done it. Everyone of us has done such a thing in our lives.
I don't believe we should be so inflexible to say that once caught cheating, ban them for life...very inflexible. Fine, put a stigma on his site - or never let him play again. But remember, you have made mistakes in your life and been forgiven...
No, maturity would be to never cheat in the first place.
Yes, I tend to agree with this. I don't think any admiration or credit should be given to this person and I don't believe this should have been made public! (just my personal opinion)
I find it strange that someone who has wronged and apologised is given more credit than those who never cross the line!
almost everything suggo says it total bulls***. this is the one time that is not the case. i finally agree with Suggo. say your prayers kids, the world's about to end.
a guy cheats and writes an email telling how sorry he is and we're ready to make him the chess.com patron saint. sorry, i'm not buying it. and as far as giving him a second chance, he had multiple chances to stop cheating on his own accord--he did not. life goes on (without the really sorry cheater)
I notice that after pouring scorn on the top 3 matchup method in the forum (and actually suggesting that weaker players may have higher matchup rates than GM's!) Kepler is gone as well.
http://www.chess.com/members/view/Kepler
There are remarkable thought of all of you. It is very easy to say than to do. The "Sorry" was indeed excellent word in the world to hide any wrong deed as some one slapping you and saying "SORRY" . Any such cheating in the game would not only disturbe the concentration but "TRUST" imposed by all of us in the "SITE" Developement is required in right direction. By saying "Sorry" would not solve the problem. It is not clear what steps have been initiated to solve this frequent problem. The person ,the cheater in actual sense, is coming again in different name and will play with you in future. Software is required to be develop in such a way that these cheaters would be traced out immediately.
It isn't about not making mistakes, everyone does, but when we do we have to suffer the consequences of our actions! The guy knew full well he was doing wrong, and the consequence for cheating is being banned. Those who suggest he, or anyone else, be allowed a second chance then be ready for every single person caught cheating from here on in to be sending in these heartfelt apologies and returning for another crack at chess.com.
As far as I am concerned anyone that wants to give credit to this fellow as doing something good and/or mature because he writes an apology after knowingly cheating should first give at the very least the same amount of credit, should actually be more credit, to every player on here that has never cheated before commending this guy!
No, maturity would be to never cheat in the first place.
Yes, I tend to agree with this. I don't think any admiration or credit should be given to this person and I don't believe this should have been made public! (just my personal opinion)
I find it strange that someone who has wronged and apologised is given more credit than those who never cross the line!
Sure, but have you never made a mistake that you said, "Man, I knew better than to do that?" Come on - the guy apologized...I understand maybe you don't want him back on chess.com. He made a mistake. People do that in life. Terrible mistakes, and looking back, they wish they had not done it. Everyone of us has done such a thing in our lives.
I don't believe we should be so inflexible to say that once caught cheating, ban them for life...very inflexible. Fine, put a stigma on his site - or never let him play again. But remember, you have made mistakes in your life and been forgiven...
Sure, we all make mistakes. Doesn't change the fact that those mistakes have consequences.
Do you want to forgive the guy? Fine, go ahead. Should the fact that he made contributions to the site (I don't know the guy myself) change things?
In my opinion, it shouldn't. If it did, every cheater would just pen a flowery missive of contrition, and come right back, most of them resuming their cheating.
In my opinion, cheating should be a ban for life offense. Its not like it is a grey area, or people don't know its dissallowed. Its blatant. They know what they are doing is wrong.
And look at it this way... It isn't just ratings points they are stealing. They also squander the time and resources of the chess.com staff who have to investigate this crap. If people didn't cheat, there would be that much more time and resources to invest in making this site even better than it is.
Now, that said, if the guy learned his lesson, and is truly sorry, great. Go to another of the umpteen chess sites on the internet.
Guys, there will always be cheaters on this site, unless there is some kind of software, and then cheaters may even find a way to get around that. If people want to cheat, they will find a way to cheat. And you continue to ostracize not only cheaters, but everyone who has ever made a mistake. He cheated...have you ever cheated before at anything? Not just chess...a test in school? Have you ever lied? You are in the same boat as this fellow. He apologized, and I respect that. That is more than a lot of people obviously do - most are unrepentant, and blow off hot air to Erik.
If chess.com chooses to not let him back, I understand that viewpoint. But let's take a look at ourselves for a minute...at least look at it this way. He did apologize. If you are going to be hard-hearted about that, then remember the next time you mess up, maybe in your marriage, or with your children, parents, etc., and you want to come apologizing. Think about how it would feel if your apology went unaccepted. It would feel cold.
I am not advocating him, but please, think about yourselves when you talk like he should be sent to chess exile...it is very cold natured. I accept his apology, and I would accept yours too, if you were to apologize to me. As long as you continued to demonstrate those behaviours, obviously I wouldn't play with you. But not even a second chance, to someone who gave an apology? Think about it.
We close many accounts each day for computer cheating on Chess.com. Generally people get very very angry about it and email back to deny it and blah blah blah (always the same thing). But today we received a different response and I wanted to share it for 2 reasons: first, a warning to those who are tempted to cheat; and second, to show an example of maturity in someone who is man enough to own up to his decisions.
"First of all, I'm very sorry for betraying the trust put into me by Chess.com.
Things have happened in my life over the last year and at one point in time I decided to make that unforgiveable mistake, and one thing led to another. I regret making that mistake. Not that it'll make any difference, and I'm not expecting you to believe me, but it's been the main reason I was considering to resign all my games and just not play on chess.com anymore. To just be able to help out the community and write articles. Alas, I threw that away the moment I first used that engine.
I have never asked you for anything, nor will I now. Don't worry, I won't try to come back under a different name, I have betrayed the trust put into me and that's sad. Very sad.
I wish you all the best. Please accept my sincere apologies, wish you all the best of luck with the website and I enjoyed all the hours on chess.com."