Suggestions?

I am playing an opponent in a tournament in two simultaneous games.  I feel like an idiot, but I have now noticed (15 moves in) that my opponent is simply making my own moves against me.

My first instinct is that this is really 'cheatery' but I don't think it's cheating by the site rules (correct me if I'm wrong).  And while it's unethical by just about any school of thought I've ever studied, I don't think there's really anything I can do about it.

I'd rather not sink to their level and use the correspondence medium as a weapon to win, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Suggestions?  Advice?  Share some knowledge?

I don't see it witch game s it?

If I put the name out there I'd be in the wrong according to site rules.  Sorry

it's cheating. Report Abuse

I feel like an utter fool.  When I logged on this morning, I went back to make some moves and... I'm not exactly sure what I was looking at.  I'm thinking I clicked on my opponent's name and looked at the two games side by side.

Bottom line is that I won't be making any more late night postings for quite some time.  The person I believed was copying moves simply isn't.  The two games are completely different.

Lesson learned on my end

roflmao....I guess what Zug is saying is ....

hehehehehe....better you than me....lol

Just so the thread topic isn't completely lost, this actually did happen once to me. I'm trying to remember exactly how I dealt with it - it was incredibly annoying.

I did, though, end up winning both games, which was very satisfying. I'm trying to recall how I forced the deviation... I'll have to rewatch them. I went fishing through my archive and found them...

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=2343261

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=2343281

[EDIT: Wait, it occurs to me that no one will likely be able to view these anyways, nevermind]

This is an old trick, one used a few years back by a British magician to defeat several strong masters (see http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4555 ).

It's very clearly bad form, but I'm not certain how it can be seen as cheating...after all, if we are able to use printed materials and game databases, then surely looking at a game in progress for inspiration can't be wrong? Let's say I'm a devotee of the Petrov Defense and I regularly check out the games of a high-level Petrov player here on the site. He plays a novelty in one of his games, I like it, and I decide to use it in my own game. I'm not soliciting advice, I'm not consulting a computer. And I don't think the fact that it's an incomplete game makes a difference either, since many opening lines in reference works are not drawn directly from completed games, but from theoretical research.

Look, I agree that it should be banned; but before you do that, I think you have to define in what way this differs from the use of reference material. Tablebases, for example, are explicitly forbidden. And if you can't find a reasonable and exact definition, you should not ban it outright; but instead reserve some sort of discretionary authority.

I would submit that the game would be transformed from a contest between competitors into a contest against one's self.  The other person isn't truly playing chess, they're merely aping your own moves against you.

Using databases and books means you are actively engaged as the architect of your game.

Another thing to consider is that eventually you'll end up with a position not covered by a book or database.  If you're mirroring two games, this is not the case and you don't have to think at all during the game.

I actually might have had an epiphany concerning this while writing.  The dividing line might be: Any mechanism that allows you to play chess without knowing the rules of chess is a cheating mechanism.