About Cheaters...

Today, I tried playing a classical game online, but I have very little doubt that my opponent was an engine. Naturally, I was pretty irritated. This cheater pandemic in the classical category has been something that has really limited my enjoyment of long time controls.

However, as I thought about it, it started to seem less logical to feel anger against cheaters, which we, as a chess community, often treat as these evil people, who are supposedly there to sabotage our lives. But I feel it important to recognize that though this anger is largely justified, these cheaters should be pitied more than anything.

I don't believe that most of these cheaters are stupid or "evil" or anything like that, but that they suffer from this grand delusion that they are accomplishing something meaningful, perhaps from an extreme psychological need for competition and domination that originated early on. Though you may say that these cheaters are simply doing it for self-satisfaction, this is part of the delusion and honestly, its both pitiful and sad more than anything that these players are wasting so much time relaying these moves from an engine WITH the assumption of self improvement. Whereas some of you feel like its "stupid" and whatnot, some individuals may see it as fulfilling to do such a thing. Different people see the same experiences differently and the truth is that some people will always find cheating to be something that gives them satisfaction.
And as long as they think they can get it away with it, they'll always believe that whatever they're doing "cant be a bad thing". It's human nature. It's as the joker says "their morals, their code. It's a bad joke...they're only as good as the world allows them to be."

With that being said, telling the cheaters to stop cheating is as useless as telling a gamer to stop gaming.

Yes, cheaters are indeed annoying but the good thing about lichess is they give rating back! Unlike ( Chess.com), or etc websites i know or knew about.

I really love these mate-in-one puzzles you have to solve to post on forums. That one was tricky! It took me longer than normal. However, that is not the only reason I wanted to respond to this. I play mostly correspondence chess now and one opponent played well and lost 3 then won 4 in a row and played...like a different person. He has not been flagged yet because I think sometimes he cheats and sometimes he doesn't. You could pity the cheaters. I don't. They won't reveal how they know someone is cheating. They have revealed that fact though. We all speculate how they know but it is just that, speculation. When I first started I thought almost everyone was cheating but a closer look at their profile made me think they aren't.

I looked at your opponents past bunch of games and I don't think I can conclude he was cheating. Its possible for this one game he was but its really tough to say.

#&^* cheaters.

my point is not about whether people are cheating or not but im pretty good at spotting cheaters at this point with the amount of classical games I've played here.

I'd like to know what percentage of people you've accused of cheating in your life actually were cheating. It's impossible to know of course, but I personally suspect it wouldn't support your "I'm pretty good at spotting cheaters" theory. You might be right about the game in question, not sure which one it is, but everybody thinks they're good at spotting cheaters because there's no consequence or record of all the times you've been sure you lost to a cheater and were wrong.

Cheating at chess on the Internet is stupid and tiresome. Almost as stupid and tiresome is complaining about people cheating at chess on the Internet. You say you shouldn't be angry but instead pity them ... as you speak angrily about them and mock them. I'm not saying they don't deserve to be mocked, but rather, don't lie to yourself about what you're doing either.

Your ratings get corrected pretty quickly if you play more games. The loss is meaningless.

Oh look! This kitten haz an opinion too! :-)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvudFqGBacQ

@Snuffington What part of the original post leads you to believe that I'm angry? My opinion is that though the anger in the chess community is justified, these cheaters shouldn't be approached the way that they are.

Perhaps I do overestimate the number of cheaters that I've played. It's a likely possibility. But I know for certain that a significant portion of my classical games have been against banned users. The cheaters come out and target those with higher ratings, it's just true and makes sense.

It's not about rating. I'm trying to continuously improve my chess to prepare for tournaments this summer and playing classical is the best way I know how. It's just inconvenient to waste this time, would you not agree?

Please don't go making hasty assumptions.

>Starts thread complaining about a cheater
>Concludes that complaining about cheaters is pointless
>Gets defensive

Ok then.

To avoid cheaters, the best way is to keep yourself to UB.