chess cheaters

is there a way to know when people are using their chess program to show them the best moves, is there? when your opponent plays perfectly with no mistakes, alot of the time i feel like i could be playing against a computer.

If you use a chess engine yourself for post analysis it should help you catch both your own and you opponents mistakes. If you can't find any ½ point mistakes then it could be a sign that your opponent has used computer analysis. But of course it's not definite proof, if you want to accuse someone you should look at some more games.

hi i think ebusiness's idea is quite good but i haven't yet myself seen anyone use that technique

If you don’t see Fritz handing out any "??" or "?" in games by players rated under master it’s probably an engine. Especially if tactics are involved.

Check their rating, past games and analyse. If somehow what you analysed is a perfect game from you opponent and he made frequent blunders in his past games, It either mean:

1)You played against an engine

2)He somehow improved(Which I doubt).

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/cheating-at-chess-on-chesscom---questions-and-answers

looking at the rating of your opponents I seriously doubt they're playing mistake free chess.

For those of you who are opposed to playing chess under the influence of databases and chess softwear programs, look into joining the tally-team-non-users. 

We believe chess is a sport intended to pit one mind against another, not a computer against another computer.  Our group originated from a previous popular forum discussion that asked who was a "user" vs "nonuser" of chess databases/programs.  http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/a-tally-of-database-users--non-users

 1200 posts later and we're still confusing the use of databases and engines  Are you saying that our two games against each other were you against a machine? 

 I mainly use chessgames.com and I have alook at games explorer here but to be honest, apologies to Erik, I find the standard of games on games explorer erratic to say the least.  I had one poetic justice lost here whem i tried the Fried Liver attack, I lazily followed a game by GM Speelman who is a guy like John Nunn who I trust and who's moves generally suit my style, as opposed to following Karpov for example.  My opponent found a big hole in the analysis and I was lost.  I looked the game up and found it was played in the under 12's section.  Serves me right for not checking it out myself!

the only time i knew someone used a chess engine against me was when  my brother thought it would be funny to use it, and i caught him because he is definetely not that good.