Please stop multi-account abuse a little bit more

Hi all

First of all, I would like to say I appreciate the minimum rated games on key tournaments a great deal and feel this has gone a long way to increase the pleasantness of the site. A big thanks on that first.

But maybe there is still some room for improvement in this area. As an example, let us suppose that certain people play the minimum number of games prior to winning or doing well in tournaments. That is fine in itself, but what if in fact it seems they had a different account the day or some days before. Is this entirely fair to the established players on the site, that do not do any "account-switching" ?!

For me personally, I am not entirely sure it is entirely fair to established players on the site that someone could potentially come in with a new account every other day, playing the minimum number of games prior to playing a tournament that day.

Is it not possible to consider adding some extra restriction on key tournaments as well as minimum number of games, to say "And not allowed to create a new account just for this tournament". Or increase the minimum days playing time for some of the more important tournaments - not just min rated games played.

The way I see it they might gain in the following ways:

1) They might feel they can be abrasive on tournament chat with their throwaway temporary account
2) They might ensure potentially a less strong opponent average rating
3) They might remain unknown compared to established players on the site - in terms of openings etc

Now it might not be done intentionally - maybe they are not remembering their original username and password. Perhaps there might be some little innovation there which can also help alleviate the underlying symptoms, to help prompt or remember login username and passwords - maybe for example a mobile phone reminder facility. Perhaps if some innovation is possible in this area, it might also reduce the potential need for "multi-account" switching or creation as well.

Cheers, K

I think a very good point in your suggestion is to set a minimum of days where this account has to be exist / days of playing.

Iam sure this improves the matter.

Even if Lichess do something about that, these people will find another way to cheat. The fact is that there is a lot of strong CMs, FMs, IMs and GMs that will crush you no matter what account they use and the fact that they saw that this affect you is a motivation to keep doing it.

You are bigger than this bullsh*%*#@ my friend, the things you acomplished in chess, your fans and all the stuff worth way more than small issues like this, as a mature man, you should keep yourself away of this kind of topic, to protect yourself and your image. I'm just trying to help you somehow but i'm just a low rated player.

#3 Unfortunately in targetting me, they are also targeting any other people that wanted to do well in the tournaments. That is some "collateral damage" there on a significant scale. So much so, that it becomes to me irrelevant actually if I were the target ("The means does not justify the ends") - they are essentially damaging the experience of all tournament competitors potentially.

So I think the issue does need to somehow be reduced - even if I am the personal target sometimes. But it could be any streamer or high profile person anyway - so again the underlying issue may be worth trying to address a bit more.

Whatever the motivation is - perhaps if people become more aware of tighter entrance requirements for tournaments, they might take more care to find their original username and password. It is a about making the cost/benefit ratio a little tougher to be worth it for creating new accounts, and more incentive for making sure they remember and use their original username/password. It basically makes the login more valuable as their "ticket" for tournament entry here.

If I ran a chess site, I'd make it 30 days and 50 games played before an account is allowed to play in tournaments. I've yet to play in a tournament here but I know on other sites, tournaments are full of cheaters/sandbaggers etc. All of those accounts I encountered were like 2 weeks old at most. Make people prove over a month long period that they are honest players, that is the best way to fix the problems with online tournaments IMO.

You are right Kingscrusher, but please consider my advice when you face small problems with cheaters, they do not deserve your attention. Cheers.

There are already rules against multiple accounts which are already enforced.

#7 I have PM'd you some specific examples of interest. Cheers, K

Kingscrusher, you've been here long enough to know that individually messaging someone with mod/admin powers isn't the correct way of handling reports.

We're on the internet where it is all too easy to remain anonymous if one chooses. Lichess doesn't possess a silver bullet for this. #internetproblems