Using opening databses during live rated chess should be treated the most harshly

I am not talking about correspondence chess here. Please don't bring this up. I'm talking about using databases in live rated chess.

By far the most pervasive type of cheating on chess.com is the use of opening databases during live rated chess. Not only is this cheating, but I would argue it is the WORST type of cheating. Yes, it is worse than using engines.

Now that might seem like a crazy statement, but hear me out. This is the chess cheating version of a gateway drug. It is by far the easiest type of cheating to do. All you need to do is go to one of the many websites that has a chess opening database, and input your moves & your opponents moves, and just follow the top GM moves as per the database. I would argue this is how most cheaters gets started cheating in chess.

For this reason, players should be AGGRESSIVELY banned when use of opening databases is suspected during live chess. Because if you don't ban them, many of them will graduate to using web browser plugins with chess engines and more sophisticated cheating.

To detect this, you simply need to train an AI tool to tap into these various databases and score every single game according to how well the player plays when the database has moves for them (which follow the database lines), and how well the player plays when the database runs out of move suggestions for them. Players playing significant worse once no more database options are available need to be instantly banned without question.

Cheating in chess is an enormous epidemic and I think the problem is being massively underestimated.

Yes but I don't like trolls

If you're going to ban someone, it should be based on more than just suspicion.

Bro 800 level players aren't memorizing 10-20 moves of every possible line in an opening. That's fantasy if you think that's happening.

Maybe then know moves for one or two specific lines, but they won't have every possible line memorized 20 moves deep.

Nah you see your mindset is the EXACT problem with cheating in chess. How do you propose we prove "beyond suspicion" cheating? You're never going to detect the player accessing the database, so by definition you can't catch them red handed.

What you are proposing is not banning players at all for using databases. This is the exact problem that's happening right now.

If that's the direction chess.com are going to take ,then they just need to legalize the use of game databases during live/rated chess, to level the playing field for everyone. Otherwise they need to ban players based on statistically significant suspicion.

you will never catch players who look at said databases, or look at an engine in critical times or just for 1-2 moves a game, these kind of players are impossible to catch and hence online is always and always will be fishy, same goes for players who turn into stockfish once they blunder a piece, there is nothing that can be done and nothing will be done, cause, well, you cant really do anything

How do you know the guy didn't know the line before the game. Why don't you play live OTB and you won't have to worry about someone using a database.

Would you want to be one of the people who get randomly banned because of a suspicion, even though you didn't do anything?

If by "statistically significant" you mean a solid six-sigma result, sure, although I would call that more than a suspicion.

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