In this article, I have analyzed 8 of my own games against cheaters. They can be found in the following lichess study and can also be downloaded for free in .pgn format on the following page.

Introduction

I was always aware that there is computer cheating in online chess. However, I never regarded it as an insurmountable problem because I always thought their number is too low in terms of the percentage of total players.

Also, it wasn’t such a big problem for me personally, since I almost exclusively played blitz and bullet in the past – disciplines with short time controls where computer cheating is much more difficult to pull off (although not entirely impossible).

However, some 2 months ago, I decided to take online chess more seriously and gave myself aim to play at least one longer game – rapid (10+0) or classical (15+15) – a day. Soon after I started doing it, I became aware of how many computer cheaters actually are there in online chess, as I started encountering them on a regular basis.

Without exaggeration, I think I encounter one cheater in every five games. I successfully reported over 30 of them, ¹  I even started reporting people I have never played against, just on the basis of their account. But new cheaters keep appearing every day and there is seemingly no end.

I got to a point where I have started aborting games against anyone who I consider even mildly suspicious ² – I decided it is worth being overly suspicious than spending anywhere between 20-40 minutes to play against the engine. ³

Just another day in the office when playing longer games online

Since this situation is incredibly frustrating and annoying and since one of the reasons why many cheaters get away with it is people not bothering/not being aware that they play against one, I’ve decided to write this article and share my experience regarding computer cheating in online chess accumulated during the last two months.

The article will be divided in two parts. First, I will talk about recognizing cheaters and describe signs you might be playing against one. Then I will talk about how I personally deal with them and what steps do I take after losing a game against someone I find suspicious.

I hope you will enjoy it and find it useful ⁴

How to recognize computer cheating in online chess: 12 signs a player might be a computer cheater

Big correlation to engine moves in multiple games

First and most obvious. Computer cheaters make very strong moves and usually crush you mercilessly.

It has to be pointed out that these aren’t ordinary crushes. In my online games, I regularly play against titled players. But even when I am up against a Grandmaster, I rarely feel I have zero chance from the start to finish – especially if we play multiple games. ⁵

When playing against an engine, the feeling is completely different. You have the feeling as if you were never really in the game. Their moves are just perfect and, needless to say, are unanimously correlated to top 3 (top 5) engine choices.

If you see your opponent had a small average centipawn loss, ⁶ you have to be vigilant that there is something fishy.

Finding beautiful and deep tactical ideas

Since chess is 90% tactics, ⁷ it is no wonder computer engine users excel in this area of play. Very often, they demonstrate very deep, long and forcing tactical ideas that are very difficult for a human (even of a higher playing strength) to find.

The previous game against SharpBishopChess is a good example, but this one is no less fascinating:

Demonstrating perfect conversion technique

Even though the difference between a human and the engine is apparent in all stages of the game, it gets even more pronounced when the stronger side obtains a clear advantage and has to convert it.

Upon obtaining an advantage, human players have a tendency to relax and start playing suboptimal moves. It is not a coincidence that there is a saying that „the hardest game to win is a won game“. Numerous games have been spoilt by laziness/over hastiness in a position with a clear advantage, ⁸.

Also, humans usually have a way they go about converting their advantage. We all tend for simplifications in such positions and avoid sharp continuations that might offer tactical counter chances.

Engines don’t have this problem, as the following game demonstrates:

Playing bad/weird openings and then continuing to play strongly

Another common trait of engine users is playing very bad/weird openings, landing in a suspicious/bad position with a lot of pieces on the board and then proceeding to outplay you.

I am not sure why this is characteristic. Perhaps some of them use engines without access to opening database ⁹ Or they just don’t bother because they know they will win anyway so they want to humiliate you.

But in any case, it is another sign to be aware of. Take my game against the user Marshall_The_Goat as an example:

Making very unnatural, „engine like“ moves

There is also a way engines play. There are some moves that are very difficult to find for humans (and some moves humans don’t even consider) – we all have certain aesthetics ingrained.

But engines don’t care – they will calculate and play the best continuation no matter how it looks.

A continuation such as the whole sequence ending up in Ng5 and Rf4-Rh4, trapping the queen, such as my afore-mentioned game against SharpBishopChess or seveshnikov.

This beautiful queen sac played against IM Eric Rosen is also a move worth noting:

Playing moves in regularly spaced intervals

Another typical cheater trait is playing the moves in regularly spaced intervals (say 3-5 seconds for blitz games), because it takes them time to feed the move to the engine, get its output and then play it on the board. A good example of this can be seen in the following video by Christoff Sielecki A.K.A. Chessexplained:

To be frank, I haven’t encountered this one myself all that much, probably because longer time controls provide the cheaters with more degrees of freedom.

But it is definitely something to keep in mind!

Taking time to make very obvious moves

Irrespective of whether they take in regular intervals or not – all cheaters do take time for all their moves.

Even the most obvious ones like a forced exchange or capture of a loose piece. For example, take a look at yet another game I played against user Marshall_The_Goat. It took my opponent more than 30 seconds to take the piece after executing a double attack. I actually didn’t realize he was cheating after that first one we have seen, but after this one, I had no doubt he was:

The following one against NT_99 is also worth noting:

Therefore, if someone executes a brilliant 5-move combination and then takes his time to play the final move and reap its rewards, you are more probably playing against a cheater.

A significant drop in level when faced with time trouble

I personally haven’t yet encountered it in longer time controls (although I did suspect some people in blitz because of it), but many cheaters start playing really badly when faced with time trouble.

The reason is simple – with little time, they don’t have the luxury of consulting their „silicon friend“ any longer. So they start playing themselves and reveal their „true“colors. The final result is sometimes comical, as the afore-mentioned video by Chessexplained demonstrates.

Having an anonymous account

This is probably self-understandable, but every single player I successfully reported for cheating had an anonymous account.

I usually check the profile before every game (even blitz ones) to see who I am playing against. If a player has a name listed, I also check his FIDE profile, just to see if he is legitimately a strong player of not.

With cheaters, you usually don’t have that luxury. You can’t see if they have a FIDE profile. Sometimes they even put some arbitrary FIDE rating, but there is no way to verify it.

But I guess that is kinda the point – nobody wants to risk their reputation by writing their name out in the open.

Having a recent/new account

Another thing I have noticed with cheaters – many of those I reported have made their account relatively recently and didn’t have a huge number of games.

Many cheaters don’t want to risk their „actual“ account, so they open a new one just for cheating purposes. Also, they all eventually get caught, so it is impossible to keep cheating consistently through a huge period of time and games.

Accounts made recently don’t have that constraint.

Having big discrepancy in rating between short and long time control (or no ratings in shorter time controls whatsoever)

Another thing I always look when dealing with potential cheaters is their blitz and bullet rating.

Many of them have a big discrepancy between ratings in short and long time controls. It is not uncommon to for me to play against a user with 1700 or 1800 blitz and bullet rating and 2200-2400 classical/rapid rating. Even though to speak of one is not to speak of another, I believe a certain correlation between these ratings has to exist.

Also, many cheaters don’t have blitz or bullet ratings whatsoever, which makes is it even more suspicious? What kind of player has NEVER been tempted to play at least one shorter game?

Different ways of trying to make the account less suspicious

Last, but not least, even though cheaters are very dumb, they are not completely dumb.

Some of them do realize that the account with high rapid/classical rating, big winning percentage, or big discrepancy in rating between bullet/blitz and rapid/classical is suspicious.

That is why some of them try various methods of making their accounts less suspicious. Here is an overview of different methods I have seen while investigating and reporting cheaters in my lichess classical career:

Using engine only in some games/only in some moments during a game

The most obvious thing. Even though the majority of cheaters is dumb enough to use the engine during the entire game, some of them realize this doesn’t help them to reduce the suspicion, so they use the engine irregularly – only in some games or – more commonly – only in some moments during a game.

This game against TheRicketsRick927  fooled me:

We will also see another game against polish_warrior_3000 later which was a good example of this. Also, both games against Marshall_The_Goat are exemplary of that (he skipped engine in the opening completely).

Intentionally resigning games to reduce their winning percentage

Since cheaters most often crush their opponents mercilessly, they usually have absurd winning percentages.

Some of them realize that and try to reduce it intentionally, by losing games on purpose. Some of them are smart enough to play an entire game without the engine and lose it in a human way, but some of them are so dumb that they play anywhere between 5-10 moves and then resign, irrespective of the position on the board.

I guess your time is too valuable to spend on actually playing chess when you could be cheating instead.

Losing casual rapid/classical games intentionally

Often combined with the previous point – many cheaters play casual games and then lose them intentionally. It both increases the total number of games they have played and includes loses in classical in their career stats.

Playing a huge number of games against the same opponent (friend) and losing some of them, but still gaining rating

I caught one or two cheaters playing 10-20 classical games against the same opponent and essentially trading rating with him. Most of the games ended up in quick resignations /checkmates and both cheaters actually gained rating at the end of it.

It was a clear attempt to include some classical games in their collection of games to make the account seem more legitimate.

Playing a low number of games in all time controls/variants

Some engine users know that an account with only classical games is suspicious, so they try to play some games in all time controls and even variants of the game.

It is not too hard to detect if you actually click on the profile and see the number of games. If you bother to check the actual content of the games, you will most probably see a lot of short games and early resignations, as well.

But if you don’t bother to click on their profile and just check if they have any ratings by hovering over it, ¹⁰ you might get fooled, so some of them like to implement it.

Playing the first game on their own/with moderate engine use, asking for a rematch and then using the engine

Last, but not least, I recently played a pair of games against a clear engine user.

In the first one, he played a horrible opening, then after my imprecisions found a very good defence, managed to equalize, reached a completely drawn endgame and then fell for the checkmate of the knight against an edge pawn. The game was actually pretty funny:

Since I assumed he was playing by himself, I accepted his rematch offer.. and got crushed like a bug, as we have seen earlier (the third game I have given in the article).

I guess it can be compared to a drug dealer. He first “hooked me” in the first game (although I am not sure he actually wanted to – he probably aimed for a draw and then relaxed prematurely) and then punished me in the second one.

Disgusting.

How to deal with computer cheating in online chess in 4 steps

Now that I have described how to recognize a computer cheater, I can get on with how to deal with them. Even though the answer: „Report them“ is self-evident advice, I’d like to expand on it a bit. I have pinpointed 4 important steps of dealing with computer cheating in online chess.

Don’t make premature accusations. Give your opponent the benefit of a doubt (everyone can play 1 good game)

I have recently read the book Talking to Strangers by famous writer Malcolm Gladwell. The topic of the book is the human tendency to evaluate unknown people completely wrong, which often leads to misunderstandings and conflicts.

In one of the chapters, Gladwell writes about Harry Markopolous, an American investor and financial fraud investigator, who warned people about the Bernie Madoff pyramid scheme as early as in 2001. He tries to explain why how exactly Bernie Madoff managed to keep his fraud going for so many years and why nobody listened to Markopolous even when he came out with his claims. ¹¹

Gladwell mentions that we humans have a truth bias – a certain tendency to expect the truth and to convince ourselves that even the most unviable events are actually possible. He also points out that this mostly a good characteristic and that world would be unable to function normally if we suspected everyone.

He also emphasizes that Markopolous is one of those rare people whose brain is wired completely differently. He was incredibly suspicious in all spheres of his life and Bernie Madoff scheme was just one of the examples of how it manifested itself.

Now, you might be wondering why I am blabbering about Gladwell, Madoff and Markopolous. The reason is that both extremes – tendency to expect the truth and tendency to suspect everyone – are bad when dealing with computer cheating in online chess. ¹²

One of the reasons I think many of the cheaters manage to get away with it is the fact that other players simply don’t suspect them. Some of the accounts I reported and got banned were so blatantly obvious that it left me wondering how on Earth did none of their previous opponents did not react earlier. Of course, I don’t recommend anyone to become a narcissistic, overly competitive rating-whore like myself, but I do think that cheaters would have a much harder time if an average Joe was slightly more vigilant.

On the other hand, I also think I have become too suspicious, borderline paranoid. I think it is important to give your opponents the benefit of a doubt and realize that anyone can play one good game. Acting too rashly, sending reports without any investigations and publicly accusing people of cheating just because it „felt like it“ are more likely to start a witch hunt than to help anyone.

I think it is important to keep everything private and under the table and to be rational when it comes to dealing with such a situation – not to go „full Markopolous“.

Take your time to investigate their profile and analyze their games. Search for signs and patterns mentioned above

I think this is the most important step of dealing with cheaters most people are not willing to make. ¹³ Before reporting a cheater, it is necessary to gather as much information/evidence as possible by going over their profile, analyzing their games and searching for signs and patterns they might be cheating mentioned above.

I usually do it by checking obvious stuff such as when was the account made, whether it has a name and what are the ratings in all time controls and variants.

Then I go and analyze a lot of their games  (5-10) by myself. At first, I look at their average centipawn loss (which is available immediately in the lichess environment) and then check the nature of games.

It usually takes me 30-60 minutes to do this. But it is definitely worth it – not only because I convince myself that the person is actually cheating and avoid starting a witch hunt, but also because I am able to provide moderation with much more context and more convincing arguments. ¹⁴

Report the cheater and let the moderation do their job

After you have done your homework, there is nothing else left to do but report the cheater, block him and wait for the moderation to respond.

Don’t be like me and report the cheater several times – the moderation is doing their job the best they can, ¹⁵ so filling several reports about the same person doesn’t really help.

Laugh in the cheater’s face and taunt him if he gets reported and goes on to insult you below your Youtube videos

Of course, if you followed these instructions closely, the cheater will have no ideas who reported him or what hit him.

However, if you are a sore, salty loser like the author of these lines you can also accuse a person of cheating in the post-game chat, report him and get him banned and then have some fun when he posts angry comments below your Youtube videos because he knows exactly who caused his online chess career to end:

I don’t usually endorse the use of the „mum“ jokes, but when it comes to computer cheating in online chess, I have no inhibitors or empathy, whatsoever. Good riddance.

In any case, I hope you have found this article helpful and that you will manage to deal with computer cheaters in online chess more successfully after reading it.

1. And got my rating refund because lichess is wonderful.
2. And getting timed-out for it because lichess is not so wonderful and punishes you for not starting your games!
3. And an additional 30 minutes -1 hour investigating and reporting the guy
4. Useful in battling cheating, not becoming one yourself, dude!
5. Except if I play blitz against Nisipeanu on lichess – that guy is a freaking beast
6. A difference of your move to the best computer move averaged over all moves
7. Or it just sometimes seems like it is.
8. Many of them by the author of these words
9. Although lichess has one accessible to anyone. Have I mentioned what a wonderful website it is?
10. Which is possible in lichess
11. As a result, Bernie was able to continue his scheme for the next 7 years. He was arrested on December 11, 2008
12. Not to mention I got to include an Amazon Affiliate link in an article.
13. Which is not surprising considering it takes a lot of time
14. There were a couple of cases where I reported the person much sooner because the signs he was cheating were even more obvious
15. And they are very effective and quick in their response, on Lichess