Intersting thing is Hans Niemann Report (Cheaters are rare 2.0)

@ohcomeon_1 said in #10:

I am pretty sure that the distribution is not uniform. I imagine the percentage of cheaters is higher at higher ratings, but they must be a minority even there. And at the lower rating bracket (which the original thread was actually about) it is certainly very low.

Nice posts and thread.

By distribution, guessing the cheater percentage is low, not the majority, at the highest level, or levels, if you separate the ladies out.
At the lower rating, both a higher percentage, and total number, as the low end distribution population is larger.
Also, by audit standards, the percentage of cheating is significant for concern.
Suggest adding a forensic CPA to the team.

@ohcomeon_1 said in #8:

Did I say anywhere that cheating should be tolerated?

I was simply responding to a somewhat widespread opinion that online chess is infested with cheaters to such an extent that one encounters cheaters all the time, which is simply not true.

I think, in general, players should spend more time improving their own gameplay, and less time worrying about cheaters. The stats you posted certainly support that.

@Edgy1 said in #12:

By distribution, guessing the cheater percentage is low, not the majority, at the highest level, or levels, if you separate the ladies out.
At the lower rating, both a higher percentage, and total number, as the low end distribution population is larger.
Also, by audit standards, the percentage of cheating is significant for concern.
Suggest adding a forensic CPA to the team.

Actually, given that the biggest number of players is found at the lowest ratings, the total average percentage 0.14% is the closest to the percentage at the low levels, while the percentage of cheaters at the highest level will have very little impact on the total average and therefore can significantly deviate from 0.14%.

Detected cheaters are in my opinion only the tip of the iceberg. From medium rated players and above the cheating become smarter and smarter and more and more unlikely to be detected. Just my opinion.

In my opinion the scale of cheating isn't very easy to quantify since you would need a survey in which you get a representative sample of players and also assume everyone is honest that is an issue when people say cheaters are dishonest. Considering some of the leaked emails etc from other websites I suspect getting honest data isn't likely to be easy.

Personally I don't actually care if I play against a cheater since there's nothing I can do to control it so there is no point worrying about it. Worrying about it would have a detrimental impact to my play since rather than worrying about my moves I'd be worrying about whether my opponent was cheating. Assuming that they cheat regularly their rating should reflect their playing strength and as far as I'm concerned all I care about is how strong my opponent is not how they get that strength.

Practically speaking I don't really see much point in cheating. I pretty much pity anyone that resorts to cheating since at the end of the day they're just cheating themselves and blindly following an engine's recommendations won't improve your own game. So if they get caught they get banned and if they don't get caught they destroy their potential future chess growth so cheating is a lose-lose proposition in my eyes even before you start getting into the morality of it.

Finally, a well thought-out and salient post regarding cheating.

Well done, @ohcomeon_1.

In my view, it's obviously in the best interest of the chess world to keep this post #1 in the forums.

Here is why:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Wiok4H1RY

@borninthesixties said in #13:

I think, in general, players should spend more time improving their own gameplay, and less time worrying about cheaters. The stats you posted certainly support that.

Agree. If you play a cheater, you will lose with and without worrying.

@ohcomeon_1

I clearly noted the lower rating distribution is larger.

I made no inference to the the percentage in any rating distribution affecting any mean.

Further, you have no legitimate numbers to work with in the first place, would bet 0.14% is statistically low.

Retired Economist, Objective Systems Analysis my profession

A forensic CPA would be a great addition to the team.

"As per the FIDE database search done on 28 November 2021, there are 1742 chess grandmasters and the number of active chess grandmasters is 1315".

This suggests that GMs playing on chess.com are at least 10 times more likely to be cheating than Ordinary Joes.

Food for thought!