Easy, they are making mistakes but in the time control, you are not catching them.
Something VERY fishy going on in the Bullet section of chess.com
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2/1 is a very tough time control to master. It is a mix of blitz and bullet. Neither here nor there.
Show me one bullet player rated 2000 up who plays this time control exclusively. Most high rated bullet players are playing the fakey 1/0....(if you notice). What you described does not surprise me at all, but I am not sure if they are ch*ating partially, as what you allude.
Been playing a bit of bullet chess lately (players rated 1300-1400, 2 min 1 sec time control) and I suspect a LOT of people are up to no good!
Yes, I know the super fast time control doesn't suit a lot of players, I am one of them.
But this is not just a question of some fast minded players playing their moves fast and gaining an advantage. Many players in the 1200-1400 bullet range are playing the first 20 moves EXACTLY to the mainline, and using really solid strategy too.
There are two types of players I have faced--- there are those who are rated around 1200-1300 on bullet but are rated far higher (1600-1700) on the other time controls. (One player was even rated 1900 on the daily time control.) They played their openings quite well for the first 10-15 moves or so, then play on both sides deteriorated as the 2 min clock ticked down. I could see they were decent players, but like me their composure and concentration fell apart when there was little time left, and a few errors and blunders came up. More often than not one player just ran out of time.
But there were also some players, quite a lot, who had low ratings on the slower time controls (1300-1400) and for some weird reason they seemed to know every opening extremely well, and didn't make any mistakes. One player even moved a piece back and forward and gained a draw, which seemed very suspicious.
Funnily enough, the chess.com computer will allow you to play rated games, and it is VERY weak compared to human opponents! It will hand over a knight or bishop in the first ten moves on the "medium" (1300-1400) rating and often on the "hard" (1500-1600) rated computer does this as well. It cant deal with basic openings like the Pirc, French defence, or gambits. This is kind of what I expected from human players.
But no, they don't really make any mistakes at all- even with just 2 seconds to think per move. What is going on? How is it that a 1300 rated player in the daily chess or 10 minute blitz will make a load of blunders and get caught out by gambits, but when they have just 2 seconds to think they suddenly become Bobby bloody Fisher?