As an active online chess player, you might have noticed a troubling trend: people are resorting to cheating. Each day 3,000 accounts are closed on chess.com due to fair play violations. The issue of cheating in online chess isn't unique to chess but affects many competitive online games.
I can't really relate to the people who do this, because none of these motivations have anything to do with the reasons I play chess.
My experience on Lichess has been much better than the toxicity I experienced on chess . com.
I guess I can see how, if a person had a certain combination of character flaws and pressures acting on them, then cheating would potentially give them a little of what they want.
Still... what a shallow waste of time.
Even from a purely malicious standpoint, it's not even an efficient or effective way to ruin other peoples' days.
In short, cheating is dumb, and the people who do it, shouldn't.
Instead of cheating, people should learn to enjoy losing. I'm sure that statement is entirely incomprehensible to people prone to cheating, but it's still true. It's a game. It's fun. Losing is an opportunity to learn.
Fully agree that it is a sad tendency! I just hope that the platforms finds ways to limit cheating in the future, because it has a deteriorating effect in the trust we have in our opponents honesty.
Aye, if we want to play against stockfish, all of us have that option. It's not what we sign up for when we try to play a game of blitz though. I hope you have a great day.
Great analysis, Martin. I love the idea of a new player pool. I see many upsides. I think it would need to be a time x number of games threshold to help cut down bogus accounts. Licheas has something kinda like this with the provisional rating where players can't participate in certain tournaments with a provisional rating.
Thank you for bringing thoughtful analysis (and Dostoyevsky!) to the discussion.
I'm a low-rated player on Chess.com who only plays daily games (24 hours between moves). I play against other low-rated players. It's gotten so bad that I check each opponent's recent games to spot the cheaters, and abort games when I think I spot them. This is the behavior I've been taught because of all the cheating!
Then, about 30% of the time, a low rated player makes a series of perfect moves (brilliant ones, even), and I say to myself, "nice engine". And this makes me even sadder, because either my opponent started cheating, which stinks. Or worse, they're not cheating but playing focused, sharp chess. And rather than give them credit, my mind is automatically assuming they're cheating because of the ecosystem we're in.
I could imagine that daily games are worse, since people actually are allowed to use the engine in other forms of correspondence chess. Also paid members on chess.com get the advantage to look at book moves, which in away makes it even more confusing for the user. So I understand your struggle!
There are things I think could help fix the problem so it wouldn't be as bad as it is now one of them would require an ISP work student e-mail disallow sign up with any free e-mail services like gmail it would slow down multi accounting and make it hard for banned players from coming back Fics has done it since the 1990s another require USCF CFC (Canadian Chess Federation) or Fide ID with a verified blue check mark that proves their identity in order to sign up to a chess server most cheaters and toxic trolls don't have one.
i "cheated" frequently in english classes by consulting spark and cliff notes. i wrote A-level essays without even reading the book - i just reshaped some words and added personal flair. i think the only book i read was the scarlett letter...
i am paying for it now... as i robbed myself of a goldeb opportunity to build foundations in culture and communication...
I asked Meta AI whether it thought disallowing free e-mail services would help combat cheating it said it would but there are cons it told me it would inconvenience people and exclude legitimate players who rely on free e-mail services and cheaters might find a work around with temporary work e-mail IDs to get back on a chess server after being banned. When I asked it whether requiring a national chess federation ID like USCF or CFC or Fide ID with a verified blue check mark would help slow down multi accounting and cheating it liked that idea it told me having a players real world identity tied to their account would make players more accountable for their behaviour on servers it would increase trust in the community promoting fair play.
A lot of cheaters I suspect are small children and older teens (roughly 14-19 years old) who know better it's turned into a sport where they break rules to see how far they get away with it without being caught and when they are they say everybody does it and shrug it off. Another group is cheating because they like trolling and angering chess players. That's all they get out of it. There's a third group titled players streamers and social media influencers that young people follow who set a poor example and are doing it themselves. The first group sees them do it and thinks it's ok.
Such an excellent piece. Very detailed and thorough.
It seems to me that Western culture, with it's focus on success and targets and winning and dominating has been internalised by it's citizens so that even their leisure time has become imbued and tainted.
I do a lot of walking and I meet many people who have tick lists of hills they want to bag and who time their climbs. I know where they are coming from as I have been there. It takes more effort to turn away from the crass shallowness of such things.
But if you can educate yourself about the history of an area, the geology, the flora and fauna, then a walk can become of interest throughout the walk and not just at the point of conquest.
Similarly with chess. If you can educate yourself about the game then you can appreciate it for all it's nuances and elegance. It's much more than just about you and your progress then.
The fascination with the self can be a problem. Drop that and you are free.
Anyway, another great piece and my best regards to you.
Thanks for this analysis.
I can't really relate to the people who do this, because none of these motivations have anything to do with the reasons I play chess.
My experience on Lichess has been much better than the toxicity I experienced on chess . com.
I guess I can see how, if a person had a certain combination of character flaws and pressures acting on them, then cheating would potentially give them a little of what they want.
Still... what a shallow waste of time.
Even from a purely malicious standpoint, it's not even an efficient or effective way to ruin other peoples' days.
In short, cheating is dumb, and the people who do it, shouldn't.
Instead of cheating, people should learn to enjoy losing. I'm sure that statement is entirely incomprehensible to people prone to cheating, but it's still true. It's a game. It's fun. Losing is an opportunity to learn.
Fully agree that it is a sad tendency! I just hope that the platforms finds ways to limit cheating in the future, because it has a deteriorating effect in the trust we have in our opponents honesty.
Aye, if we want to play against stockfish, all of us have that option. It's not what we sign up for when we try to play a game of blitz though. I hope you have a great day.
Great analysis, Martin. I love the idea of a new player pool. I see many upsides. I think it would need to be a time x number of games threshold to help cut down bogus accounts. Licheas has something kinda like this with the provisional rating where players can't participate in certain tournaments with a provisional rating.
Thank you for bringing thoughtful analysis (and Dostoyevsky!) to the discussion.
Thanks for this, Martin.
I'm a low-rated player on Chess.com who only plays daily games (24 hours between moves). I play against other low-rated players. It's gotten so bad that I check each opponent's recent games to spot the cheaters, and abort games when I think I spot them. This is the behavior I've been taught because of all the cheating!
Then, about 30% of the time, a low rated player makes a series of perfect moves (brilliant ones, even), and I say to myself, "nice engine". And this makes me even sadder, because either my opponent started cheating, which stinks. Or worse, they're not cheating but playing focused, sharp chess. And rather than give them credit, my mind is automatically assuming they're cheating because of the ecosystem we're in.
I could imagine that daily games are worse, since people actually are allowed to use the engine in other forms of correspondence chess. Also paid members on chess.com get the advantage to look at book moves, which in away makes it even more confusing for the user. So I understand your struggle!
There are things I think could help fix the problem so it wouldn't be as bad as it is now one of them would require an ISP work student e-mail disallow sign up with any free e-mail services like gmail it would slow down multi accounting and make it hard for banned players from coming back Fics has done it since the 1990s another require USCF CFC (Canadian Chess Federation) or Fide ID with a verified blue check mark that proves their identity in order to sign up to a chess server most cheaters and toxic trolls don't have one.
i "cheated" frequently in english classes by consulting spark and cliff notes. i wrote A-level essays without even reading the book - i just reshaped some words and added personal flair. i think the only book i read was the scarlett letter...
i am paying for it now... as i robbed myself of a goldeb opportunity to build foundations in culture and communication...
I asked Meta AI whether it thought disallowing free e-mail services would help combat cheating it said it would but there are cons it told me it would inconvenience people and exclude legitimate players who rely on free e-mail services and cheaters might find a work around with temporary work e-mail IDs to get back on a chess server after being banned. When I asked it whether requiring a national chess federation ID like USCF or CFC or Fide ID with a verified blue check mark would help slow down multi accounting and cheating it liked that idea it told me having a players real world identity tied to their account would make players more accountable for their behaviour on servers it would increase trust in the community promoting fair play.
A lot of cheaters I suspect are small children and older teens (roughly 14-19 years old) who know better it's turned into a sport where they break rules to see how far they get away with it without being caught and when they are they say everybody does it and shrug it off. Another group is cheating because they like trolling and angering chess players. That's all they get out of it. There's a third group titled players streamers and social media influencers that young people follow who set a poor example and are doing it themselves. The first group sees them do it and thinks it's ok.
Such an excellent piece. Very detailed and thorough.
It seems to me that Western culture, with it's focus on success and targets and winning and dominating has been internalised by it's citizens so that even their leisure time has become imbued and tainted.
I do a lot of walking and I meet many people who have tick lists of hills they want to bag and who time their climbs. I know where they are coming from as I have been there. It takes more effort to turn away from the crass shallowness of such things.
But if you can educate yourself about the history of an area, the geology, the flora and fauna, then a walk can become of interest throughout the walk and not just at the point of conquest.
Similarly with chess. If you can educate yourself about the game then you can appreciate it for all it's nuances and elegance. It's much more than just about you and your progress then.
The fascination with the self can be a problem. Drop that and you are free.
Anyway, another great piece and my best regards to you.