Hello y’all!
So yesterday I was playing in hourly ultra as I usually do.
I was paired up with a player @RAGHAVSAB .
We got paired up a couple times, played some games, talked in the chat, it was fun.
After the tournament ended, I challenged him to a game of ultrabullet. He accepted and we played a few rounds.
After that, he challenges me a to a blitz games. This is where it gets interesting. I said no, cause I had a high blitz rating, and didn’t want to lose it. He kept insisting that we play a rated game. Being polite, I accepted.
For reference, this guy was 2500 bullet, 2400 blitz.
We were playing a few blitz games, and whenever I blundered, he would always offer a take back. Even when I was about to lose, final position, he’d offer me a draw.
We played 4 games, drawn by mutual agreement. I ended up gaining 58 points, over the 4 games.
It seemed almost too good to be true lol.
Now today I went to his profile to say thanks again and see if he was online.
And low a behold....the account is gone. Just vanished. Checking his profile it says “user does not exist” and hovering over it says “profile deleted”
So what the heck actually happened?
I’m thinking either
1: he was some random Good Samaritan guy that gained elo and then gave it all to me before deleting the temp account
2: he was a normal account that got banned for giving a low rated player elo.
Looking back, it says I only played 3 blitz games which I know for a fact is false. I played 4 for sure.
As far as I remember, his profile had over 1000 games as well.
This makes me think it was #2, someone who just got banned for being nice
So here are my questions:
Does anyone know the guy?
Is anyone the guy?
Does anyone know what could have happened to him.
He was genuinely being nice, and it wasn’t me sandbagging, for real. I can’t get an account to 2300 let alone 2500 lol.
If anyone has any info or opinions, please let me know!
Thank you!
here is quick explanation what might have happened with chatgpt: Here’s the clean, realistic explanation of what happened — and it’s much simpler than the dramatic “mystery player” narrative.
What actually happened (99% likely)
Based on everything in the story, the player was banned by Lichess for rating manipulation.
This matches every detail:
1. Multiple takebacks + draw offers in lost positions
This is a classic pattern for boosting another player's rating.
Lichess detects this kind of behavior extremely reliably.
2. Playing rated games while deliberately not trying to win
This is explicitly against Lichess rules. Winning/losing on purpose to adjust ratings is considered rating manipulation, even if the intent is kindness.
3. Account disappears immediately “user does not exist / profile deleted”
When Lichess bans for:
cheating
sandbagging
rating manipulation
engine use
...it replaces the profile with “This account no longer exists.”
It appears like deletion, but it’s actually a ban with anonymization.
4. Your games list showing fewer games than you remember
When a user is banned:
some games are sometimes marked as unrated or removed
the rating changes remain, but the opponent’s data is removed
chat logs disappear
This is why you only see 3 games, not 4.
5. Accounts with 2500 bullet & 2400 blitz almost never “give away ELO” then delete
This rating level is extremely hard to achieve. They don’t randomly donate their rating then quit.
Much more plausible:
It was a smurf/sandbagging account
Or someone boosting multiple people
Or someone using mild assistance (engines) in previous games
Once Lichess flagged it, the entire account was shut down.
The two theories in the post
1️⃣ “Good Samaritan” giving Elo then deleting the account
Unlikely.
Lichess bans immediately if someone intentionally lets a lower-rated player draw/win rated games.
2️⃣ “Banned for boosting”
Yes.
This matches perfectly.
Whatever “kindness” he was attempting is still rating abuse.
Why you gained +58 Elo and kept it
Lichess rarely removes rating gains unless:
you knowingly participated in manipulation
or it was a cheating event
Since you played normally, your rating stays.
The opponent’s rating was invalid the account gets removed, not your gains.
Summary (short version)
Here is what almost certainly happened:
The player gave you takebacks and draws to artificially prevent your rating loss.
Lichess detected rating manipulation.
The system automatically banned and anonymized the player.
Some games were hidden appears as fewer games.
Your rating gains remain.
No mystery.
No supernatural good Samaritan.
Just the automated Lichess fair-play system doing its job.
Ok, that is dumb , who is that guy
@ilidiomartins said in #2:
> here is quick explanation what might have happened with ChatGPT...
Thank you homie, for taking the time! Yeah, I guess that’s what it was.
It’s just interesting cause it seemed like he had a lot of games and was a real account.
Anyways, thanks again, brotha!
@ilidiomartins said in #2:
> Account disappears immediately “user does not exist / profile deleted” When Lichess bans for:
> - cheating
> - sandbagging
> - rating manipulation
> - engine use
> ...it replaces the profile with “This account no longer exists.”
Not exactly. Either of these (and some are actually either duplicates or subsets of others) would result in "This account violated the Terms of Service." but the account would be still visible. If the account behaves as not existing, it's almost certainly a result of that user's deliberate action, closing the account. (But that was likely in response to receiving the ToS mark.)
This might be a case of profile suspension as @ilidiomartins mentioned. Nothing else makes sense
@mkubecek said in #5:
> Not exactly. Either of these (and some are actually either duplicates or subsets of others) would result in "This account violated the Terms of Service." but the account would be still visible. If the account behaves as not existing, it's almost certainly a result of that user's deliberate action, closing the account. (But that was likely in response to receiving the ToS mark.)
Makes sense! Doesn't seem like lichess would just shut it down without saying anything.
I just feel bad that he felt forced to do that.
Thanks for commenting!
@powell2233 said in #6:
> This might be a case of profile suspension as @ilidiomartins mentioned. Nothing else makes sense
Do you mean suspension, as in temporary, or permanent.
Yeah I hear you, doesn't seem like someone would delete that strong of an account on purpose without a good reason.
Also, thanks for commenting! :)
@ilidiomartins
Please do not post AI-generated answers here.
They not only are a pain to read, they are often simply wrong. Just like here, where ChatGPT seems to come up with "facts" that are completely made up.
Other users won't be able to exactly tell you what happened. Neither can AI.
He might have closed the account by own choice for no apparent reason, he might have been banned for sandbagging and then closed it ... in the end it doesn't really affect you.
You're not that bad of a booster since you stopped after three or four games. Your blitz rating is very unstable anyway, so I recommend you to play more blitz games until it's stable again (which means you only gain or lose 6-10 rating points with a similar rated opponent). "I have a high blitz rating right now" is not too meaningful with an RD beyond 80.