Sandbaggin?

Hey.

I have "recived" a Sandbagging restriction.

I'm clearly not sandbagging. I just play matches under two complete different conditions: 30min matches played at home where my rating is about 1200-1300 and 10min maches that i play to pass the time while riding in a (often overcrowded) train, that's where i most of the time loose points. Both count as rapid games.

I've won 3 10min matches recently, then i've lost 1 and was immediately was set back to 'sandbagging mode'.

Seriously WTF?

I was accused of this too. I didn’t even know what it was and I still don’t understand why it’s against the rules to lose intentionally. I suppose admitting those things doesn’t help my argument, but at no point did I ever attempt to lower my own rating or waste time playing games I secretly hoped to lose!

What pisses me off is that Chess.com would not even tell me the game or games in question so I could at least try and understand what led to their allegations. Which aren’t allegations at all, rather they are a final judgment, made by them without any need for absurdities such as presenting evidence to the accused or giving anyone the right to defend themselves or even ask a question. Nope! You’re just guilty. Final answer. That’s the Chess.com version of “trust” and “fairness.” What normal people might call “tyrannical authoritarianism” they consider to be “anti-cheat” Because if you’re not playing as best you can, they know.

How? They just do.

Before Chess.com decides to call you a cheater, do they:
Share any evidence? No.
Share the specific rules broken? No.
Share their method? No.
Tell you when it happened? No.
Tell you how many times? No.
Reply to any questions at all? No.
Consider any appeal? No.
Consult any independent auditors? No.

It’s all just part of their job keeping Chess free from cheaters. That’ll be $17 a month, thanks.

I think you should write to support and say that you want to appeal the restriction. 

I think you can see the dramatic surge and drops in your ratings that probably led to the restrictions.   Perhaps you have heard of the many complaints made by members who lose games and tournaments to sandbaggers and you will understand what they are trying to to.

However, your explanation of the difference between when you play 30 minute time controls and when you play 10 minute made sense to me.

If there were a final judgement, your account would have been closed.

Perhaps you are talking about another account?

If you had had your account closed, they would not respond to an email demanding proof.  They  certainly wouldn't post an answer in the forum.  They close when they are confident that they have sufficient evidence.  You do have the chance to appeal, however, which as I understand it, allows you to demonstrate that you were indeed capable of making the master strength moves on your own.

They have often given lengthy explanations of why they don't reveal their exact methods (so as not to give hints to cheaters trying to beat their system) and they have offered the defense that their methods have been reviewed by multiple respected outside experts and leading grandmasters and have been strongly validated by the USCF and others.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/online-chess-cheating

/ And nobody with any common sense is paying $17 per month. Most diamond members pay about half that.

 

You can clearly see from that statistic that my 'normal' rapid-rating is about where i am now. The rating increase in early to mid Novermber was because i've played a lot of 30min games at home, it stayed there because i didn't play at all for a while, now i drop back to my 10min rating.

If they did all that bullcrap, spent that much time and effort for every person that would spend their time writing a whole essay complaining and attacking them about how they got punished by them and how greedy they are instead of spending 0.5 minutes looking up the definition of sandbagging in chess to get an idea of why that's actually happened, and actually contacting them so they can amend their mistake AND just automatically assuming they are so close-minded they won't accept any justifiable appeal they wouldn't get anything done.

So it's now almost two weeks since i contacted the support about this matter. Nothing changed, i'm still stuck in 'sandbagging mode'. Support didn't even bother to anwer me, so i think it's time to leave and close my account.

im afraid that can also happen to me lol

I am sorry you felt it necessary to close your account. 

When the whole surge happened in January, thousands of people wrote in to complain.  They have been working through those for a month but there was still a big backlog as of a week ago.  I have been told they are bringing in new group but those people have to be trained.  

At any rate,  given the situation, it doesn't surprise me that you haven't had an answer for almost two weeks.  You were probably close to getting help when you closed the account.

You can re-open closed accounts by writing to support....  I  guess they probably won't answer your first inquiry when they see you have closed the account.

Pardon my ignorance in this matter “Sandbagging “ but I haven’t a clue what it is
. I have come to the point now where I have been promoted to Crystal league but it’s taking to much of my time. I have just learnt that I have a serious illness and may not be able to put the effort in as I have been doing or for much longer , such is life . Anyway back to sandbagging what is it ?

from what I see, you havent played in four months which caused you to go from 1300 wayyy down to 900, I dont know how this happened.  did you just forget how to play, it doesnt make ay sense, unless you played like 30 games on the train and lost all of your points there which doesnt seem very likely.  based on your rapid rating I think you are a sandbagger

Meowo you don’t know how it happened, so you decided he’s cheating.

I think Chess.com might have a job waiting for you!

The funny thing about “final judgement” is that despite declaring that I cheated and refusing to even respond to multiple follow-up emails from “the accused,” my account stayed open. They think I cheat but clearly don’t mind if I keep playing y’all.

i didnt say he was cheating, i said he was sandbagging,  i say this bc if u look at his account he lost like 30 games in a row after winning like 30 games in a row 4 months prior

Sandbagging is deliberately lowering your rating so that you may play lower rated players with a high expectation of winning.    Some people want to play tournament sections for which their rating would be too high.  They will lose a bunch of games so that their rating falls below the threshold and then join the tournament.   People who do this can get their accounts closed for sandbagging.

At any rate, discussions of cheating aren't allowed in the forum.  Please join the Cheating Forum club if you want to discuss further.