cheat detected?!

@gobblegooble I literally told you what triggers the auto-detection. It happens when you
A) Have the Analysis Board open in a different tab, with engine on, and the same position
B) Play a game against Stockfish in a different tab at the same time, with the same position
Those are the only two cases where it happens.

Switching tab to an Email account won't trigger it, making good moves won't trigger it, consistent move times won't trigger it, the full moon being up while it rains won't trigger it.

Your friend did one of those two things. Full stop.

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Probably he wouldn't need an engine for 1.e4, but perhaps he wanted to type the moves in already there, to not have to do it in bulk later.
Or perhaps he didn't have an actual interest in cheating, but was curious what the Database Percentages for your moves would be..

Theoretically possible COULD be that he had an Analysis board open, with Engine on, got to the position after 8..b5 in his own Analysis, then you challenged him to a game, and he got to the same position as on the Analysis board in the game "by accident".
I think? Not 100% on whether that would also trigger it, but it is obscenely unlikely anyway, and doesn't explain the obscenely long movetimes either.

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Repeating myself: Just tell him to make an account. Then you're on the safe side :-)

Thanks for bringing the issue to our attention although I have reviewed the source code and understand under what specific conditions this particular flag is raised.

The preponderance of evidence suggests the friend was cheating. I've played nearly 1,500 chess games on Lichess on a desktop computer, on my phone, and on a Chromebook, I have never cheated, and I have never once seen a "Cheat detected" message. The same is true for tens of thousands of other players.

If the Lichess software had a bug that was erroneously flashing the "Cheat detected" message, I kind of think we'd know about it.

And I have to ask: Who on Earth "shuffles tabs" at the start of a chess game? "Oh, the game's started: Great opportunity for me to check my email or look up that Chicken Cacciatore recipe."

I've played over 10,000 games and have never triggered this message.

Wow@Toadofsky

@IsaVulpes thanks for clarifying. That theory at least makes sense to me now -- the idea of entering the moves as they come to avoid doing them in bulk later; it makes more sense than desiring the engine's advice for 1.e4. I suppose it's possible my friend cheated, even if it strikes me as a far fetched given what I know of the situation.

I'm surprised that as an anonymous player, lichess is even able to know what one is doing in another tab. But as an experiment I did try it just now (I played myself using an anonymous account in a google chrome incognito window), and indeed it did trigger a 'cheat detected' message on exactly move 9, just as in the game with my friend.

I guess that since I'm asking people to avoid making assumptions, I should challenge my own assumption that he is innocent. It's bizarre though. Maybe he just wanted to have a bit of fun. I wouldn't even have questioned that (I've cheated a friend in monopoly before just to troll lol) but what's strange is that he denied it..

I was surprised to see this message in a club tournament recently. Pleasantly surprised as I was awarded 2 extra points as I had played the culprit twice in the arena. When challenged by the organiser he did admit his guilt.

Mr. Toadofsky I got a friend with a similar issue or that is what we think, I cant send you direct messages, can you help us?

I have never seen what turned out to be a false positive cheat detected.

Shouldn't the players who have had "cheat detected" be marked straight away?