Chess Ethics Quandary

i just want to play chess.  i never use anything.  if my opponent at an OTB tournament started looking through chess books, right in front of me, so that he could find the position and gain the edge, he would be promptly asked to leave.  why it's different online is beyond me.

Because that's how correspondence chess works; the computer has nothing to do with it.

 Is there a CbM rulebook somewhere Ish could puruse? .. or Maybe a nice Codes of Conduct thingy?

You mean like this?;

http://www.chess.com/legal.html#rules

 Well, wasn't thinking for specifically this site, but Yes, that'll likely help

This?;

http://tinyurl.com/uscfrulesgooglesearch

This?

http://archive.uschess.org/cc/faq.php

"Q: Can I refer to chess books?

A: Yes. Players are free to consult chess publications or literature but are not permitted to consult with other players."

That would also be default include databases of past games.

Publications and chess literature are written by... players

Besides I read somewhere that the USCF correspondence rules now allow engine use (correct me if I'm wrong?)

Hmmm

It all seems like trickery and tom-foolery to Ish

But oh well, it makes the, granted few, Wins all the sweeter, knowing it came from ISH, and only US, whilst the opponent could be consulting everything/anything they want

...with all the rules etc. it certainly is not stopping the "faithful cheats" here at chess.com...they are currently closing on average 100 accounts monthly for cheating...it does say something about the current generation of chess players...

 So sad

Yeah, and I think it says: "hoards of them play online" 

People don't change

i'd be willing to bet that the amount of players consulting books and the MCO or whatever are far, far less than those who just plug the position into fritz and let rybka do its thing.  if computers didn't exist there would be no engine cheating.  doing your homework via books is one thing, and letting a 3,300 rated engine analyze the position for a few minutes is quite another.  if i want to play engines, i'll just fire mine up. 

Slightly educated guess, (but mostly a wild ass guess) I'd say...

~55-60% don't use any sort of reference material and play turn-based as if it were a face to face game.

~30-35%  Use the opening explorer to help in the opening but that's it

~8%  Also use a database like chessbase to help in the opening

~2%  Use opening books, multiple databases, and other reference material as needed (such as endgame or annotated illustrative games)

<1% use an engine for most or all of their moves.

Especially not online.

That seems pretty accurate, but yeah it's just a wild guess.

The point being that Skwerly is paranoid

... funny typing his name... I always read it as if it were square-tee... that's really odd there's no t in there... lol

Teary will usually use the 365chess database in unfamiliar openings (both the opening explorer and the actual games archives), but those typically only last around 7-10 moves (and since you already pretty much know the first few moves of most openings by heart anyways, it is actually only good for about 5 moves).

And even the databases and archives cannot choose the move for you--they just give you a list of candidates that you can be pretty confident aren't total blunders. Even if you compare your opening against the games of the highest rated players, you'll still find variations in plans and decisions mmm hmm.