Cheating in chess

[JustinHorton]

Hi Justin,

The article does mention:

"Regan is realistic but determined. “If you cheat on a single move I will disclaim any ability to catch you,”
he said. “You can fly under the radar. But if you keep going at the same rate, you will come into the radar in the end.”

Yeah, that's not quite what I'm talking about though is it?

[Wadih Khoury]

Also there's comments from Sarah Longson where she claims that it was private school pupils who were the main offenders in the UK Chess Challenge.

“It’s the children from the private schools, sadly,” she said. “When I ring their parents they just get angry with me. They’re under such pressure to succeed.”

It's an interesting data which I would not have even thought of before.

[John Upham]

The number of stealth cheats, those who sneak in a box move when the position is critical can breath a sigh of relief
and those who never intended cheating for fear of being caught have been given a good hint on how to beat the system.

I suspect everyone knows what this is bar me but what is a "box move" ?

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi John,

Box, slang for computer. I picked it up in the mid-90's when we all had a 386 or 486 (and windows 3.1)
the computer was shaped like a box, these days they are a tower or a laptop.

[NickFaulks]

I suspect everyone knows what this is bar me but what is a "box move" ?

Only move, based on the old Informator figurine of a square.

edit : Geoff, I think it predated engines.

[Wadih Khoury]

Hi John,

Box, slang for computer. I picked it up in the mid-90's when we all had a 386 or 486 (and windows 3.1)
the computer was shaped like a box, these days they are a tower or a laptop.

They were already towers. Some were a sort of slab under the monitor, but the tower format was quite the norm from 286/386.
The truly box format was reserved for Lan gamers who needed to carry easily their computer to their friend's home.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Wadih,

Yeah that is what we had, those cream coloured slabs (boxes we called them)
under the screen with floppy disc slots. Some of the managers had towers.

Before then in the 80's it was that black screen with that bright green font
and you could smoke in the office. Every keyboard had burn marks at both
ends where smokers had rested their fags whilst taking a call.

Come to think of it, sars and covid has broken out now smoking is banned and in the decline.
Maybe tobacco is a health drug and it's function, it's reason for being, is to wipe out all known germs.

Think we need to change the current warning on the cigarette packets to say:

'Please blow in a non-smokers faces to stop them catching things.'

[Simon Rogers]

I wasn't sure whether to post this in Media Comments in Chess or in this topic.
BBC1 programme called Sunday Morning Live 10.30am until 11.30am.
Presented by Sean Fletcher and Sally Phillips with two guests "who take a look at the week's talking points and explore the ethical and religious issues of the day "
At the start of the programme there was a discussion about cheating.
Sean Fletcher talked from his card about how there is even cheating in Chess and at how one recent tournament 5 players out of the top 6 were disqualified for cheating. There was a comparison to Lance Armstrong and one panellist thought that Chess was "a gentleman's game."
Sally Phillips then questioned about Chess being a sport and joked about the physicality and trying to lift giant pieces above your head.

[Adam Raoof]

David Cordover did a couple of webinars on the topic of Fair Play yesterday, and the link to the Youtube video and the Facebook video are below (2hrs)

https://youtu.be/4utD1bOJs14

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=373235263720314

Useful Links

https://tornelo.tawk.help/article/inter ... lay-report

https://home.tornelo.com/blog/

[Joey Stewart]

5 players banned in the same tournament? I'm guessing he must have been referring to an online tournament probably on chess.com (lichess seems to allow cheats to continually win their tournaments) .

But the parallel with the degeneration of sport is starting to show though in chess, the more times people see cheats rewarded for their dirty ways the more it encourages others that the only way for them to compete is to do the same thing until it becomes a vicious cycle .

[John Upham]

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere or is a stupid question...

Do we know roughly what proportion of accounts flagged as cheating actually were cheating?

I don't know what the platforms criteria are for cheating : are these criteria known?

Presumably the playing platforms will not reveal their criteria since they think it will allow players to circumvent them.

[Simon Rogers]

5 players banned in the same tournament? I'm guessing he must have been referring to an online tournament probably on chess.com (lichess seems to allow cheats to continually win their tournaments) .

But the parallel with the degeneration of sport is starting to show though in chess, the more times people see cheats rewarded for their dirty ways the more it encourages others that the only way for them to compete is to do the same thing until it becomes a vicious cycle .

According to the presenter, it was online. I only caught the end of the discussion and they were initially discussing online events during lockdown like quizzes but then moved onto cheating and why people cheat.

[Roger de Coverly]

5 players banned in the same tournament? I'm guessing he must have been referring to an online tournament probably on chess.com (lichess seems to allow cheats to continually win their tournaments) .

It may well be a reference to observations made about the UK Chess Challenge in the Guardian.

This is the link to the full article,
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... he-culture.

[Roger de Coverly]

I don't know what the platforms criteria are for cheating : are these criteria known?

They refuse to state reasons why they ban players. One forum member was banned seemingly for using book theory in a "daily" competition on chess.com.

[John Upham]

I don't know what the platforms criteria are for cheating : are these criteria known?

They refuse to state reasons why they ban players. One forum member was banned seemingly for using book theory in a "daily" competition on chess.com.

I played a couple of games that were within my Caro-Kann and QGD (Tarrasch) opening preparation that were both agreed drawn in database positions that I was familiar with.

I was concerned I would get banned since my rating (at the time) was much lower than my opponents. I've no idea if my fears were founded or unfounded.

Is there a criteria that says "Your rating is too low to know that much opening theory : you are banned"