I wanted to show a friend my position in a recent correspondence game, and I didn't want my opponent to accuse me of cheating if they were in the game and saw that there was an anonymous spectator. So I searched online for a FEN editor and found one on this site.
Once I crafted my position, I saved the FEN, then saw that I could just send him the URL of the page to make viewing my position simpler. But after sending him the URL, I noticed that there was an analysis button. Curious that it would give me a board he couldn't edit to show him a neater window, I hit the button. To my dismay, I found that Stockfish immediately pointed out the next position, without my asking it to. When I switched back to my game, I found that the site accused me of cheating and declared my opponent the winner.
I probably should have just sent my friend the URL of the game in question, but I have a feature request - If a position was entered into Lichess that it detects is a position you're currently in, instead of automatically launching the engine and flagging you as a cheater, why not just open the analysis board of the game in question and not engage the engine at all?
A. By showing your friend that position in your correspondence game, he could provide outside assistance which is against the rules.
B. If your intentions are not for his/her outside assistance, just wait until your game is over to show your friend the position.
1. I agree you probably should have just shared the game URL with your friend.
2. I'm quite divided on your suggestion since changing this behavior is an invasive coding effort to support a very unlikely use case. On the other hand, maybe a third party could troll either player by sharing a URL to an engine-enabled analysis board? If that's the case at least that needs to be handled properly.
"A. By showing your friend that position in your correspondence game, he could provide outside assistance which is against the rules."
I agree, and I don't seek help from other people during matches. However, when this person and I discuss chess, we sometimes invariably bring up positions we're currently in to give each other an idea of what we're currently mulling over.
I do, however, consult online websites such as Wikipedia to learn the theory and best moves behind the openings I come across during gameplay or to remind myself of how a specific endgame plays out, but according to the USCF, that's not against the rules as long as I don't consult an engine or a tablebase.
"2. I'm quite divided on your suggestion since changing this behavior is an invasive coding effort to support a very unlikely use case. On the other hand, maybe a third party could troll either player by sharing a URL to an engine-enabled analysis board? If that's the case at least that needs to be handled properly."
It's almost trivial to download Stockfish and feed the position into it for the next move without ever touching Lichess's servers. I guess I just expected Lichess to be a bit more forgiving to people poking around the site than what I experienced.
If trolls do flock to this site and start harassing correspondence players in this manner (I can't see this happening in bullet matches), then I suppose the issue would be more pressing. However, both this and my case appear to be outliers compared to normal site usage.
In real correspondence people are allowed to use engines, books, table bases and consult with other players. And they do. Top correspondence players typically use two or more different engines for each game. I would recommend to switch off engine detection in case of correspondence games.
I suppose that it's not a rule per say, but according to the third point under "Your responsibilities as a player" on the following URL:
http://www.uschess.org/content/view/7521/393/, it states
"You may consult chess books and periodicals but not
other players. You cannot use a computer or computer program
(chessplaying algorithms) to evaluate a game, but you
may use computers for record keeping and databases."
I am referring to the World Correspondence Chess Championship. As is clear from interviews with top correspondence players they now all use computers and that is OK. They also used to consult with other players a lot. In the end after all engines and consulting they decide on their move and live with the consequences for the year to follow.
