Switching to cheating at some point in the match...

@lurarose #6

Lurarose, you are perfectly right of course, and your reply would make perfect sense if I actually had asserted what you are tackling ;-)
I am not sure about the name of this fallacy right now...

I can't see the point in assuming that nobody is cheating, as you are proposing. It would simply deny reality. However, you got a point in not being too quick in accusing of cheating. But the same holds for accusing someone of just excusing a loss...

Actually, it is not the rating loss versus cheaters that worries me. In contrast, it might be a good training session. But if the result of a match is determined already, the fun is out of it, somehow...

The density of detected cheaters would be very interesting. Is that information available`?
Could be interesting to verify one's gut feeling about that. My guess would be around 5%.

We can call it the "Rotten Morale Index" :-)

I have found it in longer time controls. Player will play fast, blunder the opening then - long pause - plays like Carlsen after that.

First things first: Toggling to an engine is probably one of the most unworthy things to do.

On the other side of the board:
Playing against an engine CAN be good training (enough thinking time given). Like playing against Stockfish.
In my opinion you can only make the best of it. (Or report every game you have a bad feeling with directly. Could be troublesome...)

Ths index for cheaters on servers:
What an interesting idea! Bringing some background-knowlege of how big cheating on lichess really is.

I only play 5 minute blitz chess here but I notice that I could be playing an opponent and they seem to be at my level or lower. They get into an unfavorable position and take a pause of about 2 minutes. After the pause, the player comes back like Garry Kasparov moving even faster and no mistakes.

Yeah, I get the same feeling. I'm so convinced sometimes I'm delighted to switch on the post analysis only to notice that, once again, the other guy didn't cheat- I just played badly.

the really funny thing is this:
some of those who professed here have "strangely" closed their account