Why isn't copying from an opening explorer during a game considered cheating?

Same rules in live chess as OTB.  No aids whatsoever.

You can't.

game explorers are only for openings. if u dont know the opening properly u cant play the middlegames 

You can also look up the ideas behind the openings, no? 

Makes sense. Imo, using any kind of aids, opening explorer included, will tremendously help you in lower levels of play (which is where I play). Since most likely the other player will not play it properly at all, giving you a huge advantage.

If you really want to learn to play chess, use your brain that is better than game explorer.

What is proper opening? If you lose a rook in less than 20 moves, you make a blunder and has nothing to do with any openings.

Agree,The cheating rule makes no sense to me. Using Opening Explorer gives an massive advantage, as does using databases. 

That is one of the reasons why its best not to worry about ratings on here, they are not representitive of OTB ability, they are more likely to represent ability to use opening explorer and databases.

If you want using explorer and databases to be cheating, how are you going to detect it?

Is there any point having rules that can't be enforced?

I dont think you can Two Move. Online chess invites cheating, if not on every move, people can use engines to look at moves where they are stuck.

Thats why I get fed up when so many people are banned for "cheating". Its impossible to tell.

i don't understand the point of opening books.  i don't think they should be used.  if you have played enough chess you can force your opponent into an opening line you know and are comfortable with.

Yes, if you start the game with a big advantage from using opening books or explorer, its probably going to be an easy win against someone just relying on their brain power, I would have thought...

Yes, LongislandMark, but if 90% of people play a particular move, its a good indication that it is the best move. Usually there is an overwhelmingly popular move or couple of moves.

Maybe there should be some indication of whether people are using Opening Explorer and databases or not.

Same thing happenned to me.

The openings like budapest gambit are effective because it is so easy for people who don't know the mainline to falter.

let's face it.

for the first few moves it is impossible for game explorer to give you a wrong move and the budapest gambit is so sharp that we need a tool(like say the opening explorer) to make sure you don't go wrong before like move 10.

Usually in games like this the person with premium wins unless the other person has access to a better tool.

The only cure to this is sticking to boring old openings like QGD,italian game,spanish game,sicillian(the sharpest you can get). or not play correspondense chess at all.

The point was making was can tell if someone is cheating by using software by the statistical correlation of their moves with those software would make. There is no point making database use illegal in online play, with rate of play of a day or more per move, because there is no way of detecting it. Unenforceable rules are pointless.

You can tell if people use soft ware for EVERY move, but not if it is used occassionally. Impossible to tell. 

I suspect to get rid of cheats, you would need to get rid of a quite a high proportion of online players.

I don't think it's as big a deal as people are making out here.   It's pretty easy to steer most lines out of "book" and unless you are playing a GM, your opponent is not going to have some immediate, clear refutation up his sleeve.   The "book" lines might be objectively best, but they are very seldom the only playable lines.  

So for example, I am currently playing a Staunton Gambit.  This thing is researched to death and played into the ground.   It is still completely playable, and there are still interesting moves to be found which take it out of current theory.   Interestingly, there is nothing new under the sun, and if a guy hunts around, he can find old lines that were played a few times in the 20s, for example, that are absolutely playable, absolutely sound, and very interesting.   We analyze the current favorite moves to death in all these openings, but the fact is, chess is complex enough and most chess players simply not good enough, that we can deviate from book with very little fear.   

On top of that, there's no worse feeling as a chess player than when your opponent boldly marches you out of your favorite variation that you know 20 moves of.   Now you have to THINK!   So that's what I strive for.   I play stuff that looks interesting, I play it full bore, and try to get out of book as early as is feasibly possible, and usually that's before move 10.   

Finding a game in a database that matches your current online game to x number of moves is in no way an indicator that your game will go on the same way.   It's sometimes useful to see strategy in play, sometimes useful to see moves or ideas that failed.  But thinking that it's some kind of super-weapon is just wrong in my opinion. 

i think this guy has the right idea.

even if they have a theoretical +=, in a general sense i'm pretty sure that many "weaker players" just get lost in the position after they are done with whipping out the theory moves. seen it way too often

but it still takes the surprise factor out of a lot of openings.

I always check the "My Games" option in Game Explorer first in the openings to see how I have done against my opponents in that particular opening. I have the luxury of having played almost 2,800 games so I have a good idea which move I should make. It shows the win, loss, draw percentages that I have played.