Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

[Hugh Siddeley]

I generally play online blitz as a guest because playing with my regular account means I spend more time whiling away the hours playing chess than I'd like. Anyway it seems to be happening more and more frequently that opponent's are accusing me of cheating and it's getting old fast. Maybe it's because I play faster than 95% of the opponents I face or there is some idea out there that there are so many cheaters. Sometimes I say nothing in reply but other times I feel I have to prove I am not cheating by saying "you could have played this and that" or "look, I lost my last 3 games, check my history." Anyway it's getting really tiring so I've come up with a new rejoinder "Using Deep Brain v2.0, made in 1978, too bad you weren't using yours."

What's your story? Do you get accused of cheating a lot? And what do you reply to such allegations?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

And what do you reply to such allegations?

No reply, just adding to an ignore list.

[Tyler Longo]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

Im not good enough to be accused of this.

[Neil Sullivan]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

...What's your story? Do you get accused of cheating a lot? And what do you reply to such allegations?

On FICS, I used to hear this pretty often. Chats after the game, good or bad, were common.

Now that I play on ICC, I haven't once been accused of cheating and I find there is little or no conversation.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I've been accused of cheating, but it was years ago and had something to do with timestamping or internet delay. After I stopped going to that server, no more furore.

I also log in as a guest--on fics using my wife's ipod touch and Magnus free interface--occasionally. I thought the opposition would be all beginners (because rated players would not normally compete against unrated guests), but actually it's pretty good. I get mostly good games, and sometimes I lose. That's a bonus! And it's against people who don't care about their ratings ... sometimes if the game gets ridiculous (like the opponent taking a long time to move in a hopeless position), I just resign. Isn't that wonderful? I am surprised that people playing a guest would start talking about cheating. How about this for a reply:

"No, I am not a computer, but right now a moth is laying eggs in your favourite sweater."

But, Hugh, if you tell us that people accuse you of cheating, how do we know you're not making it up? How do we know you're not just bragging?

Can a guest have an "ignore" list?

[Nic Haynes]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I've played a huge amount of chess online in my day. FICS, ICC, WCN mostly.

I can honestly say that I can't recall a single time that I thought a opponent was using a computer. Don't get me wrong, maybe a few were, I have no idea. However, if it does occur, it is not widespread. Maybe this is just because I am mostly a 1 0 or 3 0 player, and it wouldn't be very difficult to tell when somebody is using an engine at 1 0 because the vast majority of players, even good ones, make many errors in a 1 minute game.

I honestly think that cheating in chess is something that is very uncommon, and the few incidents that do occur get a lot of exposure, and there are some people that hugely exaggerate the issue.

[Hugh Siddeley]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I should clarify that this happens mostly on FICS (I play there more than any other site) and as Neil mentioned it seems to be quite common there. The scenario is guestABCD vs guestEFGH.

Not bragging, I have a feeling that people are simply justifying their loss by telling themselves "well, my opponent was cheating." Usually it isn't a great game and like I said I sometimes point out "if you'd played this or that you'd have had the advantage." Anyway maybe it's because I play quite fast (I only play 3 0) and people find that suspicious.

No, a guest cannot have an "ignore" list.

[Hugh Siddeley]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I can honestly say that I can't recall a single time that I thought a opponent was using a computer.

Having initiated this thread it's interesting what happened to me last night. There are 2 things that arouses my suspicions that someone is cheating against me:

One is if they are moving at the same tempo per move no matter how complicated or simple the position is (as in 3 seconds, move, 3 seconds, move and so on regardless of the position). Of course humans will play a series of moves quickly and when things get complicated tank a bit about the position and then move quicker again.

Two is when they play some obscure and weird combo (a computer tactic that a human wouldn't see right off the bat) without even taking any time to think about it.

So yesterday I was playing someone and he pulled this amazingly complicated combo that came out of nowhere in no time flat. I stopped playing and said "wow nice engine, where can I get it?" and he replied "houdini chess." I said "I haven't heard of it" and he said "it's a windows-based program, google it." How about that?

[Neil Sullivan]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I should clarify that this happens mostly on FICS (I play there more than any other site) and as Neil mentioned it seems to be quite common there. The scenario is guestABCD vs guestEFGH...

I know people will cheat just because they can, but I would have thought it would mainly be people with accounts who can have ratings. If you're an anonymous guest, I don't see why you would bother. After all, your info disappears as soon as you log out.

[Jason Lohner]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I know people will cheat just because they can, but I would have thought it would mainly be people with accounts who can have ratings. If you're an anonymous guest, I don't see why you would bother. After all, your info disappears as soon as you log out.

I was once accused of cheating... I was flattered :)

[Nic Haynes]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I know people will cheat just because they can, but I would have thought it would mainly be people with accounts who can have ratings. If you're an anonymous guest, I don't see why you would bother. After all, your info disappears as soon as you log out.

I don't see the difference even if you do have an account. Nobody cares what your internet chess rating is and there is almost no monetary or other value associated with a game of chess on the internet.

To put it bluntly, there is no incentive (in my eyes) to using a computer at online chess. Even if you do attach value to your chess rating (and many people seem more interested in this then what is actually happening in a game, which is unfortunate), a high chess rating earned by a computer doesn't mean anything. I just don't understand how anybody would gain some sort of sense of achievement based on something else's accomplishment.

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

I've only ever been accused once, although I don't play on line all that much, maybe once a week. The accusation came from a player who was obviously a beginner the way he played. I've only thought I was being cheated on once, two games and he was just playing too, too, well for his rating and moves only a computer would have played. I felt like I was playing a world champ not a class player. I didn't bother making an accusation. I play on ICC and they do have a way to report this though. I think you can no longer play as a guest there, maybe this is one reason why.

[Roger Patterson]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

there are several people in this thread who claim that they've had games where the opponent cheated - i.e. they could tell because of the moves he made.

So fundamentally, these people believe that there are some moves you can definitively say were suggested by a computer and an accusation of cheating is perfectly OK. The flip side of this is of course that recent thread we had where someone infered cheating based on not playing good moves.

None of this makes any sense. We all have moments of brilliance and/or stupendous stupidity. Infering anything from those moments is pointless and unsound.

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

there are several people in this thread who claim that they've had games where the opponent cheated - i.e. they could tell because of the moves he made.

So fundamentally, these people believe that there are some moves you can definitively say were suggested by a computer and an accusation of cheating is perfectly OK. The flip side of this is of course that recent thread we had where someone infered cheating based on not playing good moves.

None of this makes any sense. We all have moments of brilliance and/or stupendous stupidity. Infering anything from those moments is pointless and unsound.

in my case I didn't bother reporting it but on ICC you can, which if I was going to do it I would not accuse my opponent directly

they keep how they determine if someone is cheating a bit hush hush but one way is to compare what was played against all known chess engines, if there is a very close compatability then either I'm playing a GM or I'm playing Fritz

it wasn't just one move, it was the moves from start to finish and looking at my opponents established rating on ICC there was no way

sort of like when I played a Labour Day and my 'unrated' opponent smoked me very badly, I was and still am pretty sure I am right in that he was a very strong player from outside Canada there to win an easy prize for the weekend, this was the early 90's and he went through our section like a hot knife through warm butter - I didn't bother that time either, I was beaten OTB fair & square (sort of) and there was no way to prove anything as far as I could see

they do catch cheaters on ICC so they are out there but not that many to worry about

there is a big difference in accusing someone of 'cheating' by fixing a game and someone using a chess engine to make their moves for them, which is easier online but can still be done OTB, as they have determined in the Worlds in Pensylvania for example http://www.seniorchess.zoomshare.com/

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Are you sick and tired of being accused of cheating on the net?

What's your story? Do you get accused of cheating a lot? And what do you reply to such allegations?

On the old WCN, one guy accused me of cheating because I played 70+ moves in a bullet game and still had like 8 seconds left. It was a fairly easy endgame for the last 30-40 moves, so I let my mouse do all the thinking.

After the game, he says to me, "You're using a computer to make all your moves."

So I said, "Of course I'm using a computer! What else could I possibly use to connect to the Internet with... a watermelon? I don't think I could plug my mouse into a watermelon without making a mess though... Maybe a banana? Oh, I know, a box of envelopes! I think I have a box of envelopes in my drawer, shall I try connecting to the Internet with that?"

And so on, and so forth :)