I am a huge fan of chess youtubers IM John Bartholomew and GM Simon Williams. I watch all their videos religiously especially their longer time control vids (15 minutes each) as I feel it is the most instructive for players trying to improve.
I have noticed though that Simon who plays exclusively on chess.com has been plagued by cheats since starting his series. Admittedly he has only videod 16 games (where I believe about 10 have been engine users.)
John Bartholomew has used Lichess.org to upload a lot of his longer games (over 100 at least?) and rarely encounters a cheat. I saw a recent episode where he did and left to ICC but he seems to have returned now.
My question is why the disparity between both players encountering cheats? I do not believe that Lichess has a better cheat detection than chess.com. I think they are both fighting a losing battle. So why does John apparently face less cheats than Simon?
My own thoughts are this
- the ratings are inflated more here than on chess.com so John plays "2000" players who might be significantly lower in playing strength. Whereas Simon on chess.com is playing 2000+ that either know a lot about chess or cheat
- Lichess encourages fair play by being completely free. (I really want to believe this theory but the majority of cheats Simon faced were free chess.com members)
- John does encounter his fair share of cheats but just doesn't upload his losses ( I doubt this as he has named and shamed cheats in the past)
I'd like to know your thoughts on this subject. I would prefer if the discussion was kept civil as I know cheating is a volatile subject. I'm just curious as to why one encounters more than the other. If a member of the Lichess team feels this discussion isn't appropriate or counter productive then please feel free to delete.
Thanks for reading.
I have noticed though that Simon who plays exclusively on chess.com has been plagued by cheats since starting his series. Admittedly he has only videod 16 games (where I believe about 10 have been engine users.)
John Bartholomew has used Lichess.org to upload a lot of his longer games (over 100 at least?) and rarely encounters a cheat. I saw a recent episode where he did and left to ICC but he seems to have returned now.
My question is why the disparity between both players encountering cheats? I do not believe that Lichess has a better cheat detection than chess.com. I think they are both fighting a losing battle. So why does John apparently face less cheats than Simon?
My own thoughts are this
- the ratings are inflated more here than on chess.com so John plays "2000" players who might be significantly lower in playing strength. Whereas Simon on chess.com is playing 2000+ that either know a lot about chess or cheat
- Lichess encourages fair play by being completely free. (I really want to believe this theory but the majority of cheats Simon faced were free chess.com members)
- John does encounter his fair share of cheats but just doesn't upload his losses ( I doubt this as he has named and shamed cheats in the past)
I'd like to know your thoughts on this subject. I would prefer if the discussion was kept civil as I know cheating is a volatile subject. I'm just curious as to why one encounters more than the other. If a member of the Lichess team feels this discussion isn't appropriate or counter productive then please feel free to delete.
Thanks for reading.