It is obvious there are some bot in anonymous games

@Ender88 said in #6:

I agree with you, but to be fair shadow banning may work for also for anonymous users.
So maybe aggressive automatic cheating detection + shadow banning may work sufficiently well to disincentive cheater in anonymous game

Yes, it could be done in a way that is unsatisfactory in all kind of ways:

• it is easy to get around.
• it takes up lots of resources that could be put to better use for registered users.
• The detection quality is lower as there are less games to work on.
• The cheaper the solution, the worse its detection quality.

But then, I don't see any reason why one wouldn't want to create an account, but play basically games against players of unknown strength.

And why throw lots of work onto something that's basically unfixable to protect people who do not even care enough to create a free account?

Also, I don't get the point of cheating in totally anonymous games at all. Except to test your cheating tools, in which case interacting with them would actually help them to get better.

@nadjarostowa said in #11:

Also, I don't get the point of cheating in totally anonymous games at all. Except to test your cheating tools, in which case interacting with them would actually help them to get better.

Well, people do all kinds of things which are pointless yet damaging, and anonymity is a good cover for general trolling.

The other points you make about poor return for lots of investment in anti-cheating measures against anonymous users are well taken and also hinted at by Ender88 in #10.

I'm not sure how using a bot in an anonymous game is "damaging". Totally pointless, yes, but what is being damaged? Did you click a button to play a game of chess against an anonymous opponent? Yes. Did you get to play a game of chess against an anonymous opponent? Yes. Did your rating suffer due to some unfair abuse of rating system? No.

Leaving aside all that, games with <40cp ave. error are really common (against certain styles of play they are not difficult at all to produce). I'm frankly bad at chess, but I'd regard an error margin of more than that as a sign that I've not played well at all, even by my own low standards.

This sounds like I'm having a go, and I really don't mean to. Why not just sign up and play on an account? That will make sure you get matched to better opponents and the whole playing experience should just be better.

@Damiano72 said in #13:

I'm not sure how using a bot in an anonymous game is "damaging". Totally pointless, yes, but what is being damaged? Did you click a button to play a game of chess against an anonymous opponent? Yes. Did you get to play a game of chess against an anonymous opponent? Yes. Did your rating suffer due to some unfair abuse of rating system? No.
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I would say that the trust that we are playing a fair, sporting opponent is being damaged. That reflects badly on the base of users here on Lichess, regardless of whether those users are playing under registered accounts. We clicked a button to play a game against a fair, human opponent. We didn't get that fair game.