from what i understand.... not cheating.
Is this looked down upon?
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I can't understand why it would be cheating. Any grandmaster champion would (should) research the games of a contender prior to a match to prepare him/herself for their opponents playing style/weaknesses/etc... We should be trying to emmulate them if we want to be successful at this game. Just my humble opinion ;)
Definitely allowed. Studying your opponent before the game begins is allowed in all kinds of chess and is almost always done at the master level. In online (corespondance) chess here, use of databses and opening books is permitted, even once the game has begun.
Not cheating. When a game starts against an unknown opponent I sometimes look at his list of lost games, pick one and then see how he lost it, it gives me an idea of the calibre of the player and what to expect. I don't always do this because I like jumping into the unknown, normally I like to take my games as they come but sometimes certain games are more important than others, for progression in tournament or whatever. Scouts do the same thing in football.
Mar 3, 2010
0
#6
Assuming this was not Live chess it is perfectly legal to look at your opponent's games *after* the game has started as well. Indeed I use the opening explorer on this site to view my opponents opening choices and see which variations he/she does less well in or if he/she plays lines i prefer to avoid.
I remember doing this in a league game for "live" chess on another internet site once. We got paired weekly with other players, then scheduled a time to meet and play an hour long game against them. So I had nearly a week to wait after the game was scheduled. I looked at the last few games in the guy's history and saw that he played a gambit that I didn't know how to handle. So I debated playing a different opening to avoid the gambit, but instead, I decided it would be interesting to learn how to play against it. So I spent days researching the gambit in order to prepare. He did play it against me, and I clobbered the guy, because I knew how to play well against that gambit.
1) There are no rules against it.
2) Everyone has the same opportunity to look at opponents previous games, so doing so does not give any player an unfair advantage.
3) It is customary in regular chess for higher rated players to study the published games of opponents prior to a match.
So I'd say go for it!
Not cheating, just creating a strategy Good for you!
"KingsEnemy"
My situation is as follows: I accepted an online challange (and was playing black). While waiting for the first move, I was viewing my opponents previous games and noticed they frequently play the exact same opening, and almost always the same 4 moves. I am new to chess, but have great respect for the game and players alike. I am curious whether or not it is cheating if I were to look at these previous games in order to better play this opening. Thoughts would be greatly appreciated!