fryedk wrote:
Just thought of something that could occur in team tournaments. Such tournaments are usually 4 v 4, with 2 whites and 2 blacks for each team. If one team was massively lower rated, couldn't they use this strategy to tie the match? Just replicate the moves made by one of his white opponents in a match against a black opponent, and vice versa; the opponents in effect play each other, guaranteeing a 50% overall score. Would that be cheating? It's not like anyone's using outside assistance of any kind. Just predetemined strategy.
It seems like it is not strictly against the rules. A similar question was asked to a FIDE arbiter. He thought that time pressure could be used to defeat this strategy. That obviously wouldn't work in a correspondence game.
from: An Arbiter’s Notebook by Geurt Gijssen
Question What if a team in an Olympiad copied its opponent's teams moves exactly? So basically the team could not lose. I guess the opposite team could try to get into time trouble shenanigans, but still it would change the nature of the play greatly. Albert Akerman, (Sweden)
Answer The solution of this "problem" is in your question. There will be a moment in the game that the "copiers" will be short of time. In my opinion, an arbiter has no possibilities to forbid this behaviour
See also: http://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/8229/how-should-an-arbiter-handle-copying-moves-from-another-game
Just thought of something that could occur in team tournaments. Such tournaments are usually 4 v 4, with 2 whites and 2 blacks for each team. If one team was massively lower rated, couldn't they use this strategy to tie the match? Just replicate the moves made by one of his white opponents in a match against a black opponent, and vice versa; the opponents in effect play each other, guaranteeing a 50% overall score. Would that be cheating? It's not like anyone's using outside assistance of any kind. Just predetemined strategy.