Cheating in chess

[Wadih Khoury]

Above 1k rapid is insane in a year. Blitz and bullet I can understand.
But a rapid is on average what? 30 minutes? That is something like 1.5 hour a day. 3k is 4-5 hour a day.
And don't get me started on players who have 1k+ classical games, that's even more impressive.

[JustinHorton]

I've been a member for a year and a week, and I've played 3400...

That's a lot, fingers crossed you see a good improvement in your play when otb chess is back then.

I doubt it's done much for that apart from helping me learn to negotiate some hokey opening lines I probably won't ever see OTB!

But a rapid is on average what? 30 minutes?

I play 7+5 and they class it as rapid. I don't know precisely where they draw the lines.

[Roger Lancaster]

I've been a member for a year and a week, and I've played 3400...

That's a lot, fingers crossed you see a good improvement in your play when otb chess is back then.

I doubt it's done much for that apart from helping me learn to negotiate some hokey opening lines I probably won't ever see OTB!

But a rapid is on average what? 30 minutes?

I play 7+5 and they class it as rapid. I don't know precisely where they draw the lines.

In the case of 7' + 5", one takes the basic 7 minutes and adds 60 times the increment [60 x 5 seconds = 5 minutes] to arrive at a notional figure of 12 minutes which would be the time allowed if the game went on to move 60. 12>10, ergo it's rapidplay. 7' + 3" would have been blitz.

[Angus French]

Ah, the lichess categorisations are different. See https://lichess.org/faq#time-controls.

[David Sedgwick]

Ah, the lichess categorisations are different. See https://lichess.org/faq#time-controls.

The Chess.com categorisations are also different.

This is one of the ways in which Lichess and Chess.com do not abide by the FIDE Laws of Chess or the FIDE Online Chess Regulations, choosing instead to be a law unto themselves.

[Nick Grey]

Yes and give problems with rulings on cheating on ECF rating.

[Kevin Thurlow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZH1ubA7xio

reveals (about 2 minutes in) cheating in online sudoku tournaments.

Back on topic, Lichess cheated me out of another game last night. The event started and I got a static board where you couldn't move anything, then it said I'd lost as I hadn't moved...

[Jonathan Bryant]

I recently did some investigating into a phenomenon that I found really curious:-

Why, when playing the classical Caro Kann as Black did so many of my opponents blitz out exactly the same moves (virtually ignoring 11 Bf4 rather in favour of 11 Bd2 despite both being played 1000s of times OTB) ...

... and then pause at the exact same point - move 13 - before playing Kb1.


Looking at the move times and the Lichess opening book I concluded the only plausible explanation is that they're using the lichess opening book whilst playing games on lichess.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I've also discovered it's possible to quite obviously, deliberately and repeatedly lose games and not be banned from Lichess.

[Pete Heaven]

I've reported a couple of people for losing a thousand or so points by throwing game after game in less than 10 moves, immediately prior to a tournament in which they then play normally. Lichess seems to be ok with this rather ridiculous practice.

[Chris Rice]

I've reported a couple of people for losing a thousand or so points by throwing game after game in less than 10 moves, immediately prior to a tournament in which they then play normally. Lichess seems to be ok with this rather ridiculous practice.

Unfortunately I have to agree with you. In one of my schools I was teaching a class of 7 year olds and one of them had just made the school team on Lichess. He put his hand up in class and announced he had won two games for the school. I told him that was really great and the class gave him a round of applause.

During the lesson I wanted to go over the two games with him to see what he had done well and where he could improve. Instead all I could find were losses, in fact pretty much all losses, all in under 10 moves and only one win where his opponent had resigned after five moves in an equal position. I wondered if I had accessed the right username but he said I had the right name. I then asked him what was going on and he said he played virtually none of those games, his dad had played them. Naturally I said he really shouldn't be sharing an account and maybe he would have a higher rating if he just played the account by himself. He told me his dad was a really good player but that the Lichess ratings weren't fair and thus his dad had "corrected' the rating by deliberately losing games. That way when he was playing for the school team he would get easier opponents. Obviously I was wary about saying anything negative about his father's actions. The father, had done this apparently at least 40 times and the one game that he did win he was annoyed about because the opponent resigned before he could. I guess in that case the opponent was doing the same thing.

Lichess took no action on the account.

[Jonathan Bryant]

...
Lichess took no action on the account.

Unfortunately lichess taking no action after blatant unethical behaviour and out right cheating is reported to them is not unusual in my experience.

I do have some sympathy for them - there's a lot to support about a free website and stamping out all cheating is clearly an impossible task. FWIW I also feel the wider chess community is underperforming in terms of how it responds to cheating and unethical behaviour.

Still, I find Lichess' attitude to the subject to be too self-congratulatory to be healthy.

[NickFaulks]

Still, I find Lichess' attitude to the subject to be too self-congratulatory to be healthy.

I couldn't agree more. They should either do the job or stop saying that they do it.

[Geoff Chandler]

"...the Lichess ratings weren't fair and thus his dad had "corrected' the rating by deliberately losing games.
That way when he was playing for the school team he would get easier opponents.

Is he saying 'he' as in him or when his dad plays for the school team?

"...and the one game that he did win he was annoyed about because the opponent resigned before he could. "

Sandbaggers sandbagging against each other I find that quite hilarious.

[Mick Norris]

FWIW I also feel the wider chess community is underperforming in terms of how it responds to cheating and unethical behaviour

Indeed, but I doubt we're surprised about that