Is cheating really as rampant as people say?

The title explains my question.

I don't think this post is against the rules I'm not accusing anyone of cheating. I searched forum posts related to cheating before posting this and found plenty of other unlocked posts that didn't personally accuse anyone and were just discussing it.

The Answer is No...

There are really only 3 Internet Chess site out there and this is one of them. People from all over the world play here. So the competition is extreme. Bigger the pond, bigger and meaner the fish..right?

So at whatever elo you are at.... expect serious chess players when you play a rated game. Will you encounter a cheater .. yes... but they are rare and few... will they cheat and get away with it? Yes... but the eventually get caught.

The perception of cheating levels is orders of magnitude more than the actual amount. The vast majority of games and players are clean.

https://support.chess.com/article/648-what-do-i-need-to-know-about-fair-play-on-chess-com

https://www.chess.com/article/view/online-chess-cheating

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chesscom-update-june-2025#FairPlay

The site closed more than 113,000 accounts in May for fair play violations and has a full team of staff working on reports along with some automated systems for detection.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/fair-play

That said, discussions of cheating, potential cheating, or cheat detection are not allowed in the general forums. If you would like to discuss join the following club

https://www.chess.com/club/cheating-forum