10 tells you’re being cheated?

I can think of some:

1. Taking too long on opening moves.
2. Taking the same amount of time on moves throughout the game
3. Taking an absurd amount of time to make obvious forced moves
4. Making unintuitive moves. Like Kh1 or something weird like that
5. Playing too good moves. Making some good moves are ok. But too many is a red flag
6. Playing really bad openings. Nobody above 1500 plays 1. h4
7. trash talking. Talking trash implies you know you’re going to win.
8. Not analysing the game after (no point if you cheated)
9. playing real,y bad then playing really good when losing ( you’re not fooling me)
10. winning super quick. I can hold my own against a GM for 20 moves otb. You expect me to believe you can beat me in 15? Behave!

Add your own.

not very sure about most of the points you get about that. 1, 2, 3 can't be indicators of cheating in my opinion.
4, 5, 6 and 9 can be an indication.

11. Really low puzzle rating. This one is important because it’s not hard to get 2000 on here. If someone beats you and their puzzle score is 1400 then it’s suspicious.

././././.

Based on only the posts I've read in the past 48 hours, I would get the impression that there is:

a) a large culture of cheating that is rampant and out of control

b) a cheating majority, or close to it

c) that it's NO BIG DEAL because EVERYONE is doing it. < ---This is a very negative side effect of loose speech. There's no way around this logic

I want to be clear and concise:

a) If you are using engines to "prove" your belligerent suspicions in-game, then you are the cheater that we all hate.

b) If you contribute to an atmosphere that encourages this kind of belligerent suspicion and consequential misbehaviour, while you might not be a cheater yourself, you helped create many. You are, therefore, actually more effective than a cheater.

c) You are looking for ghosts and you will find them absolutely everywhere.

You are spoiling the experience for yourself, and if you come to the forums to spread this infectious echo-chamber of paranoia, you are also spoiling online chess for others as well...not only to the same degree as actual cheaters, but moreso.

Look. A cheater can make 1-2 people paranoid a day IF they suspect him and he's banned.

Careless talk and loose tongues can infest 100s of people with that exact same level of sick-suspicion in one single post.

There is no way around this. We have the testimonies of confessed cheaters and the theme of "suspicion" is dominant in many instances regarding their initial synapse that led to them cheating.

Listen. There are exactly 3 things that are of benefit to be discussed regarding cheating:

1. Cheating in online chess is already at an all time low. It's not something that should be worried about outside of perhaps reporting that one game that just seemed a little bit 'off' (approx. 1:40)

2. Cheating at Lichess is almost non-existent because Lichess' anti-cheat division and anti-cheat tools are world class. We've been actively showing cheaters the door for years, and they've ended up making their homes at paysites.

3. If you suspect someone of cheating, fill out a report and keep it moving. The community thanks you for helping improve the Lichess experience for everyone.

When simply giving one impression instead of another, makes the difference between someone choosing to cheat or not to cheat, then it makes good sense to know exactly what we're talking about and the effect that our speech will have.

From my experience and calculated study, the ACTUAL amount of cheaters is somewhere around 2-3%, at the 1900 level, with a classical time control.

Bottom line, any time the conversation comes up, points 1-3 need to be reiterated and made the primary focus.

With that said, there are 2 points that OP made that are completely valid.
The rest are useless and lead to paranoid insanity.

I'd like to tell you what those two points are, but I have no interest in helping cheaters to evade my detection.

The best advice that I can give is simple:

1. If you haven't suspected anyone in about 30-40 games, and you get that one game that really feels 'off', then that one case might be worthy of an investigation.

2. If you haven't suspected anyone in about 30-40 games, and you find yourself all of a sudden completely and abnormally unable to find a plan, then that one case might be worthy of an investigation.

3. If you haven't suspected anyone in about 30-40 games, and you are playing at your very best, and you feel like you're all of a sudden up against someone 500 points better, then that one case might be worthy of an investigation.

4. If you haven't suspected anyone in about 30-40 games, and you find that you are pigeon-holed into a variation where it appears that you should stand better, but then as the variation unfolds, you find your opponent with an abnormally "lucky" resource 5 moves later, then that one case might be worthy of an investigation.

Why am I qualifying all of this with, "if you haven't suspected anyone in about 30-40 games"?
Because if you suspect every second person, then you basically suspect everyone, and you are therefore completely useless. The only time that you will be accurate is twice a day, just like a broken clock.

Cheating is somewhere around the 2.5 percentile playing 1900 classical.
Your suspicion level should reflect that.

I've had 4 in a week.
I've had 0 in a month.

But averaged out, 2.5 is just about correct.

I agree with the poster 110% on the point of, "Let's behave ourselves appropriately and to best effect." (paraphrased)

I often happen number 4 and 9 lol.

You have lot of experience to come to such clever points.

I play mainly rapid time (10 minutes) because I'm a slow player.

I don't cheat and I'm above 95% of the rapid pool this is a proof of a cheating is a small minority. I'm not very good player (2050+ national elo), if I can stand above of 95% of the pool this is a proof of low % of cheating. Also I think that likey +95% of people above me also don't use cheats simply are better players.

In general I play games online in various pages and in my opinion the cheating people are very low %. Likely less than 1% in very few games I have a suspicion.

You learned all this over 3 casual games?

lol lovlas

he might know all these because he is cheating!