Bot to (semi) automatically cheat online in blitz

I naively thought that all the fuzz about cheating in online blitz games was nonsense, now I'm flabbergasted to discover that bots capable of overlapping best moves upon the online Lichess board, or Chess.com or whatever online platform, while actually playing do exist, with sophisticated features to manage timing and strength, and even capable of inputting moves themselves.

So, Kramnik may be right? How is Lichess protected against real smart cheating with these instruments?

These devices exist, and when they get used on Lichess the player is quickly caught and banned. That is really all we need to know if we're not privy to the methods of cheat detection, many of which are kept secret to make it harder for cheating players to work around.

I understand. The point is that these types of devices make it physically possible to cheat at any level of speed, without any risk to get flagged and effectively eliminating any possibility of using suspicious timing of moves as an indicator of possible cheating. Mid-level players might actually find their way into smart-cheating, enough to close the gap to the better ones and get to the podium in online tournaments without getting caught. Suddenly Kramnik's position appears much less paranoid than it seemed.

I guess the defense against these devices should shift from detection based on game analytics to software fixes that can actually prevent these bots from interacting with the app or the web interface. Or, maybe, best way would be to let the bot work while detecting its presence in a very stealthy way. Is that even possible? Otherwise, there is really no point in online chess tournaments anymore.

For good reasons, browsers do not allow websites too much influence on what is running elsewhere on the computer.

@sheckley666 said in #4:
> For good reasons, browsers do not allow websites too much influence on what is running elsewhere on the computer.
I understand this too. I'm not a programmer, but I guess that for a bot to work, either it runs as a browser plugin, or it needs to detect and interact with the browser, to recognize squares and pieces and to project moves onto the board. If there is absolutely no way to get at least some hint through the browser or the app, then, at least when money is involved, participants should allow some sort of remote check on their system, to verify that no such application is running.

@HCB1983 said in #5:
> That is really all we need to know if we're not privy to the methods of cheat detection
>
> Come on man. You, Cedur, all these folks who jump instantly to show the correct path of thinking. Modern inquisitors on a very small sect. What about caruana and kramnik. former wc and top player(no, they are not mathematicians you would say).
>
> People are free when they think. Many people think with the best of reasoning that online chess is broken, selective cheating for critical positions cannot be controlled in any way. Instead of accepting the truth some dogmatic people like you kill the messangers and want to make us to close our eyes to evidence. The right to disagree with another person s arguments is not a color in your rainbow flag you proudly display? We have to be as narrow minded as to believe a random guy on internet knows better about what is cheating rather than Fabi, Kramnik, and our own experience in the game. Of course, if you insult a cheater you get banned instantly! Libre or free is above all, free of dogma. Accept that and stop censoring, this is not a church and you are nor a preacher.

ok I block and report

@Cedur216 said in #7:
> ok I block and report
seems like a pointless report to me.

You think personal attacks and unmindful inflammatory speech are not a good enough reason?

@MarkIorio said in #3:
> [...]
> I guess the defense against these devices should shift from detection based on game analytics to software fixes that can actually prevent these bots from interacting with the app or the web interface. Or, maybe, best way would be to let the bot work while detecting its presence in a very stealthy way. Is that even possible? Otherwise, there is really no point in online chess tournaments anymore.

What makes you think detection is currently based only on game analytics? I can assure you there is a lot more to cheating detection than that.

The advent of cheating plugins, if I've got that term right, will certainly have forced the teams who detect cheating to keep up and keep ahead. I have seen no evidence that they are in any danger of losing that battle, however.