Why I have decided to stop playing at Cheaters.com • page 1/1 • General Chess Discussion • lichess.org

MM1993 edited

Until recently, I've been playing a lot of rapid games (mainly 15|10 and 30|0) on chess.com because I enjoy Swiss tournaments and it's one thing I wish Lichess had the most. Most of the times it goes like this: First round I get paired against a beginner and I beat them in the opening. Second round I get paired against a really low-rated player (below 1300) who surprisingly knows the opening theory very well and his every move comes with a punch. They don't play the best engine moves but all of their moves are good/excellent. Once they win a pawn or their position becomes much better , they start offering me draws (Why?). At this point I usually either draw or lose. Next round I win easily and in the fourth round again I get paired against a really low-rated player who's leading the tournament and he smashes me easily (because at this point all the other high-rated players have withdrawn from the tournament because of these guys; yesterday I saw a WGM lose to one of these players and it was so embarrassing to watch).

I often try to keep a positive attitude and tell myself: It doesn't matter if these guys are cheating; the practice and the experience I get out of these games is what's important. But it's hard to keep focus when this thing happens regularly. I even try to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that these people are not cheaters but really strong players who intentionally keep their ratings low, but when I check some of their blitz games I realize that their performance is similar to that of my 6yo nephew. Again I try to be positive and say: maybe they have problem playing under time pressure. However If they know, say, Najdorf theory up to move 20, you would expect them to implement it in their blitz games as well, but that is never the case. So I report them for cheating and bookmark their profile pages just to see if Chess.com cares. They send me an automated message after a few days that reads: "We've taken action against one of the users you have reported" and when I check their profiles, I see that nothing has happened.

If you think I'm paranoid or I'm just a sore loser, check out this series by GM Simon Williams on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQQ6Y41L8gPOAzxmado8gFi0y3V3kAwFB
He decides to play longer time control games so that his viewers can listen to him explain his ideas as he plays his moves. His goal is to reach a 2500 rating starting from a humble 1800 range. Quite amazingly, half of his opponents are blatant cheaters! After 10 games or so he still struggles to reach a 2000 rating! To the point that he becomes paranoid and starts to suspect every opponent he gets paired with (exactly what happens to me) and later he decides to only play friends or really low rated players. It's a hilarious but sorry sight to see a grand master get thrashed around by class A rated players on a chess website.

I've played numerous 30 min games on Lichess and not once did I suspect my opponent to be cheating. Does that mean there are no cheaters at Lichess? No! Does that mean that Lichess cares about its community and takes cheating very seriously? Yes!

Until recently, I've been playing a lot of rapid games (mainly 15|10 and 30|0) on chess.com because I enjoy Swiss tournaments and it's one thing I wish Lichess had the most. Most of the times it goes like this: First round I get paired against a beginner and I beat them in the opening. Second round I get paired against a really low-rated player (below 1300) who surprisingly knows the opening theory very well and his every move comes with a punch. They don't play the best engine moves but all of their moves are good/excellent. Once they win a pawn or their position becomes much better , they start offering me draws (Why?). At this point I usually either draw or lose. Next round I win easily and in the fourth round again I get paired against a really low-rated player who's leading the tournament and he smashes me easily (because at this point all the other high-rated players have withdrawn from the tournament because of these guys; yesterday I saw a WGM lose to one of these players and it was so embarrassing to watch). I often try to keep a positive attitude and tell myself: It doesn't matter if these guys are cheating; the practice and the experience I get out of these games is what's important. But it's hard to keep focus when this thing happens regularly. I even try to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that these people are not cheaters but really strong players who intentionally keep their ratings low, but when I check some of their blitz games I realize that their performance is similar to that of my 6yo nephew. Again I try to be positive and say: maybe they have problem playing under time pressure. However If they know, say, Najdorf theory up to move 20, you would expect them to implement it in their blitz games as well, but that is never the case. So I report them for cheating and bookmark their profile pages just to see if Chess.com cares. They send me an automated message after a few days that reads: "We've taken action against one of the users you have reported" and when I check their profiles, I see that nothing has happened. If you think I'm paranoid or I'm just a sore loser, check out this series by GM Simon Williams on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQQ6Y41L8gPOAzxmado8gFi0y3V3kAwFB He decides to play longer time control games so that his viewers can listen to him explain his ideas as he plays his moves. His goal is to reach a 2500 rating starting from a humble 1800 range. Quite amazingly, half of his opponents are blatant cheaters! After 10 games or so he still struggles to reach a 2000 rating! To the point that he becomes paranoid and starts to suspect every opponent he gets paired with (exactly what happens to me) and later he decides to only play friends or really low rated players. It's a hilarious but sorry sight to see a grand master get thrashed around by class A rated players on a chess website. I've played numerous 30 min games on Lichess and not once did I suspect my opponent to be cheating. Does that mean there are no cheaters at Lichess? No! Does that mean that Lichess cares about its community and takes cheating very seriously? Yes!

ad_00900295

#2

I feel each and every word in your post. I like the name cheaters.com. Makes much more sense.

The interface of that website in general is pretty BS anyway. Every good feature needs to be paid for. After I saw 800 rated player going for a perfect Najdorf with average centipawn loss of 15 in a 3+0 game, I searched Google as to why is that so. I found a chess engine which highlights which move to play on the board and it works with cheaters.com very well apparently. It also works with lichess but I guess lichess has better cheating control than on cheaters.com.

For 99% of players online Chess is 10 minute fun. Why ruin those 10 mins on that cheaters.com. I don't understand why people won't just play fair, enjoy and learn.

I hope lichess keeps on improving the cheat detection system. I plan to donate to lichess for that exact reason.

I feel each and every word in your post. I like the name cheaters.com. Makes much more sense. The interface of that website in general is pretty BS anyway. Every good feature needs to be paid for. After I saw 800 rated player going for a perfect Najdorf with average centipawn loss of 15 in a 3+0 game, I searched Google as to why is that so. I found a chess engine which highlights which move to play on the board and it works with cheaters.com very well apparently. It also works with lichess but I guess lichess has better cheating control than on cheaters.com. For 99% of players online Chess is 10 minute fun. Why ruin those 10 mins on that cheaters.com. I don't understand why people won't just play fair, enjoy and learn. I hope lichess keeps on improving the cheat detection system. I plan to donate to lichess for that exact reason.

MM1993 edited

#3

@ad_00900295 Even if by any chance these people are not cheaters (that might be the reason why chess.com never bans them), there should be a punishment for those whose performance level suddenly jumps by 1000 points. For example the site can only pair them with similar users. But nobody cares.

MM1993

#4

P.S. After 55 games, GM Williams never reached 2500 and gave up at 2200!