Cheating is increasing significantly in Classical and Rapid

You do realize the OP is rated at around 2000? So, this is not him making stupid blunders, easy trade down games, and playing into obvious traps, or memorized attacks. At his level, there is plenty of closed positional games where the only right move is difficult to find for a human, and the continuation requires computer like calculation. Getting tired of reading the "1000 to 1500" level players who say "MaYbE iTs CuZ YoU pLaY BaD BrUh". Or "PrOlLy WaS BeCuZ YoU dId ObViOuS TrAdEs, aNd Ez TaCtIcS". My favorite one "NoT EvErYoNe WhO BeEtS U Iz A ChEeToR".

don't whine about it here. Report it to lichess and include detail on what you find suspicious.

@EmaciatedSpaniard said in #12:

don't whine about it here. Report it to lichess and include detail on what you find suspicious.

If they did something about it, he wouldn't have made the post. Think McFly, think.

I think he is probably right. On the other hand, I too have had several games when, with someone even 2000 odd, it is possible to have a 99% accuracy game with little issue just by the nature of the lines that have been selected. If the game is very closed with material being exchanged continuously, then you can have that sort of accuracy and not be a GM or whatever. I have even had 99% accuracy games on 1 minute games where the reality is that this could only be achieved because the game was very closed often with early exchange of queens.

What does anyone mention of correspondence chess? Would anybody mind commenting on cheating in correspondence chess as it may be related to this topic (i.e. long time control, have seen players on correspondence chess playing against strong bots on lichess, ratings of 2750+ , no correspondence leaderboard etc.) Could be interesting subject of matter, no? Feel free to comment if you have anything insightful to say.

@SeanRR said in #1:

I know this has probably been said by other users, but I do feel that cheating has increased recently in Classical and Rapid mode. Sadly, it's not just new accounts who cheat and get quickly banned.

I've observed that some players with 2000 rating and 8 years on Lichess played many games with 99% accuracy and less than 10 average centipawn loss against 1900-2000 players. The most plausible explanation here is cheating.

My hypothesis is that rising global inflation and political instability have made people more selfish and desperate, therefore they cheat against strangers online to make up with their failure in real life.

I noticed it's increasing too! On the one hand it is frustrating to play against a cheater while on the other hand it is good to know you are playing well against an engine. But it is mostly frustrating!

@MATIBOZZANO said in #8:

I was banned because the mods thought i cheated and not really, how do I ask them to correct it? I only play fall and sometimes very well because I know a lot of theory

Bro You have cheated! Dont lie to us and to yourself

@InModeration said in #7:

I can't believe that many people cheat. Why would they? How can you have any fun copying an engine move into your game?

Perhaps they like a big number next to their Lichess name. How is that satisfying? No, I can only imagine that a small minority with problems would cheat unless of course there was money to be made from it.

Exactly what I keep saying. So ridiculous to worry about cheaters.
It is ok that Lichess keeps banning them, but sometimes I wonder: If there were no cheating prosecution at all, would cheaters get tired of it?

All I ask is for one game as evidence. Just one. Or maybe tell me how many 99%+ accuracy games you saw from one cheater.

You can make it into a study maybe to hide the players name.

Hey talking about that wouldn't it be a good addition to Lichess to be able to share games anonymized?

@Sybotes said in #18:

Exactly what I keep saying. So ridiculous to worry about cheaters.
It is ok that Lichess keeps banning them, but sometimes I wonder: If there were no cheating prosecution at all, would cheaters get tired of it?

The issue is without prosecution even if let's say 50% get tired of it, you're still left with the remaining half + a steady income of new cheaters as new players learn the game. Then you get people setting up bots to play continuously and skew the stats of top players. Chaos.