Why does chess.com lock threads that discuss cheating?

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shawntown1980

i played some games where I was amazed that, after I gained a mid game advantage, my opps kind of transformed into GM’s and crushed me. I’ve studied enough GM games to know when I’m just outclassed. 1700 players. It was weird. I searched for this topic and have found that these threads get locked up by the mods pretty quick. I think maybe this problem is much worse than most seem to give credit for. I’ve been shocked by the play of my opponents. 8 out of 10 are cheating, I believe, in post-analysis. Is the thread-blocking just chess.com protecting its money? Afraid we’ll all quit? Well, I’m close, so maybe. But still, That would be understandable. One thing I found noteworthy were all the players in comments sections who think it’s quite low...5-10% ...maybe if you’re playing blitz or bullet. At 15 minutes, which I play? It’s alarming. They cheat the whole time. They cheat when they’re starting to lose. 

Preggo_Basashi

Send me some links. I want to see some of these games you think they turned on an engine in the middle of it because honestly I usually think OPs like this are whiny or sore losers... but you're right, I don't play 15 minutes, so maybe it's common here... so I'm willing to look.

 

But to answer your question, yeah, chess.com doesn't like bad publicity.

Also a lot of people don't know much about cheating, and topics like this can educate people on how to cheat and educate cheaters on how to cheat better.

Also people can get emotional and start attacking a player who is not cheating at all. The better way to deal with a person you think is cheating is to report them, and chess.com will look at some of their games and ban the player if they were cheating.

NichtGut

I understand your concern too. Why dont delete them since they do not want bad rep.

lampcord

Whenever I hear accusations of cheating by players ranked as low as 1700 I always wonder the same thing:

If they are using an engine, why aren't they ranked > 2400?

Do they only cheat in some of their games? Because just about any engine out there plays around 2800-3200 so it seems like they'd be beating everyone they play. Maybe I'm missing something.

madratter7

In before the lock. But basically, report them if you feel they are cheating. In my experience, Chess.com does an excellent job of banning real cheats when they are reported.

However, like Preggo, I think most posters accusing others of cheating are indeed just poor losers.

As for discussing cheating, there is a forum you can join that does allow discussing cheating (although still not specific allegations against a particular player).

Sam1303

I do not now!?

OOPS!? some body did a wrong move!?

 

Sam1303

oh!!!!

 

JackalJT
They will not name cheats but do give you points back for people that violate fair play. How or why his is done is not visible.
Most people I am finding use computers or programs to keep their score up.
No one really cares or does much about it
BartSimpson50

To discuss the matter of cheating further, or to learn more about cheat detection, please join the Cheating Forum: https://www.chess.com/club/cheating-forum

Chess.com takes cheating very seriously: see

https://www.chess.com/blog/News/new-tools-for-fair-play-on-chess-com
https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-com-fair-play-and-cheat-detection https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1444879-fair-play-on-chess-com-what-you-need-to-know
https://www.chess.com/blog/DanielRensch/cheating-on-chesscom

Cheaters are banned when they are detected. There are various tools that are used to keep them from returning without permission; these tools are familiar to anyone who has run an online forum.

However, discussions of cheating in the main forum is not permitted, as it tends to become very heated and result in lots of public accusations, many of which are completely unfounded; you might be surprised how many cheating reports we get about low-rated players after a game that was a complete blunderfest. If all these reports were aired in public, it would just cause an ugly flame war. Therefore, I am locking this post.

To report a suspected cheater to the Support team, please select Report Abuse under the Help menu, or use this link: https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/emails/new. All reports are investigated, even if there is no immediate visible action.

Thanks,
BartSimpson50 - moderator

This forum topic has been locked