just got my THIRD notice of points refunded because i played a cheater
no prizes , nothing of value at stake, so why do people cheat in these rated games.
are they desperate to get a higher rating?
are they just unethical or uncivilised ?
anybody with insight on this please tell us.
I have my opinions as do a lot of other players. Unfortunately there is no way of accurately determining the degree of cheating across the board. It may go something like this:
A few players consistently use an engine. They get caught because they reach higher ratings and they are more exposed to scrutiny. Once these players get over 2000, they have to continue using an engine to stay up there. A telltale can be the huge disparity between standard and blitz ratings.
Bottom dwellers suddenly becoming experts and go screaming up the ratings charts.
Occasional users are harder to pick because engine use can be disguised. Even within a game the play can vary from the stupid to the sublime, that is, halfway through the game when they are losing but haven't yet blundered, they suddenly start playing GM moves.
The psychological processes are a matter of conjecture but cheating in general is associated with low self esteem and the need to empower themselves and to feel cleverer than others. Also online play fosters a disconnect from the victims (the non-cheaters) so it is a kind of victimless crime in the cheaters eyes. It seems that many cheaters don't have a well developed sense of the morality of fair play. For people that have developed a sense of right and wrong, the idea of cheating creates an internal conflict that induces anxiety. If someone starts cheating they may have some initial anxiety that diminishes as time goes on and they are receiving the rewards of success. If they are caught, especially on free site, they can just re-emerge with a new identity. Why do they get a reward from winning even though it is the engine that has achieved victory? I can only guess that like, hackers, they feel they are outsmarting the system. there may even be a component of "kicking the arse of those smart arse chess players". They get that feeling of superiority when they would normally be powerless even if it is a hollow victory. Somehow they must rationalise their behavior so there is no internal conflict. There are some people, like sociopaths and in the extreme, psychopaths, who have no guilty feelings to deal with when doing bad things. The potential to cheat is in all of us but fortunately the overwhelming majority of people do have robust moral compasses. I am not suggesting chess cheaters are akin to axe murderers! :) It's a similar sort of psychological process and just a matter of degree.
I think what motivates most cheaters high cash prizes. People pay large sums of money to enter. (depending on section players could pay up to $400) Higher sections cost more money. The prize also increase in the high section. The prizes are in the thousands. Some people go to these events not because they want to play good chess but because they want to make a quick buck. If these players were playing honestly this would be extremely hard. I am not saying that everybody who plays in these events is cheating. In fact most people are not. What I am saying is that high cash prizes drau cheaters
I don't understand cheaters either, but it must be either self-esteem related or they simply have sociopathic tendencies.
Seeing that players who have been categorized as cheaters can't play rated games on this site, I wonder if it would be possible to have a setting for registered users to not show these players in the list of people looking for games (both rated and unrated). For example, there is already a setting to filter out anonymous users, so it should be pretty easy to have another setting to filter out suspected cheaters. I know hovering over their name will show they are tagged, but we shouldn't have to do this prior to every game.
I have never heard of rating points refunded. What is this system?
Lichess has detection algorithms built into their software that flags cheating. I don't know what sensitivity settings are used but I have recently had 2 lots of rating points refunded. One was following my complaint of suspected cheating and the other was after a player was detected by an automatic filtering process? or by examining the player's history after another complaint of suspected cheating? Both were lower rated playing at a very high level and their were other symptoms such as move times and playing history. I guess there are other criteria used to determine the likelihood of cheating. There is no certainty of catching cheaters as they can be more subtle such as using an engine occasionally or when they are behind in a game. There is also a chance that a non-cheater will be accused of cheating but the detection system is supposed to be legitimately filtering out cheaters with "reasonable" accuracy. It looks like a semi automated process but there may be moderator input in each decision. I received a message that I have was a victim of cheating and that points lost were being refunded. The cheaters are then flagged as such and cannot earn ratings points. I don't know about other restrictions imposed or how long they last.
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@droceretik well said Sir. I agree with every idea that was expressed there. In another world I could have written a similar text, and if I do, don't go to this other world and ask my other self for copyright issues, because hey, it just happens that we think alike over this subject.
Thank's for your support in this issue Morning Coffee. I will go back to OTB club play sooner rather than later I hope. This is due to the nice social aspect of face to face club play plus online chess has been made much less attractive because of cheating. I know there are ways to minimise the impact of cheating, like choosing matches with known fair and like minded players and checking player profiles before starting play but having to do this is limiting the number of available players and I think aborting matches carries potential penalties?