Dear chess friends,
have you ever played against a cheater? With cheater I mean someone who uses a chess program instead his own brain. Online this is quite easy nowadays with freely available strong engines like Stockfish.
As an example, in this position from of the video below, if you would be White (and have just a minute on the clock): What would you do? (Stop reading further if you find out for yourself!)
White to move, what is best?
Both white rooks are hanging, so it is quite tempting to trade one rook off with check, right?
Instead, the best move is Qf6x with threatening mate on h8. The loss of the rook after Rd1x+ is not a big deal, because after Kh2 Black is forced to play Kg8 to prevent the mate, which is then followed by Re7 and the Black queen is lost (otherwise mate on f7 comes!). Did you see this? No? I guess you are not alone. To play a much stronger, but not obvious move by an "average player" is a good indication that you play against a cheater (of course if you play against a grand master you should better expect such moves 😁).
In this video GM Niclas Huschenbeth (GM Niclas on Lichess) explains (in German however) his experience with playing against 2 cheaters and how you can recognize them:
So in a nutshell here are the warning signs:
- First of all of course if the cheater finds not apparent but very strong moves which are way above his skill level / ElO rating
- Cheaters tend to take always similar times for the moves regardless if it is s critical position or an obvious/forced move, because they need a few seconds to enter the moves into another game running in a second window/tab, for the engine to evaluate.
- If the cheater despite of the cheating comes into time trouble, chance is high that he then starts to play on his own and if he plays then much weaker than before, this should make you suspicious as well.
Do you have any other observations made in playing against cheaters?