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The Clock and the Cheat: Inside the Quiet War on Online Chess Cheating

This article is part of an ongoing investigative series on the culture, psychology, and mechanics of online chess cheating.

In case you aren't trolling... nothing but sorrow lies on the path ahead.

Two major events will happen in the far future of online chess cheating:

  1. As cheating tools improve, some sites will find it too costly to enforce anti-cheating rules (while other sites will falsely accuse players).
  2. Eventually opponent's won't care whether their opponent was using a tool or not, except when money or other stakes are involved.
> This article is part of an ongoing investigative series on the culture, psychology, and mechanics of online chess cheating. In case you aren't trolling... nothing but sorrow lies on the path ahead. Two major events will happen in the far future of online chess cheating: 1. As cheating tools improve, some sites will find it too costly to enforce anti-cheating rules (while other sites will falsely accuse players). 2. Eventually opponent's won't care whether their opponent was using a tool or not, except when money or other stakes are involved.

Yes, online cheating must be stopped, but they should also check the cause:

  1. Cheating: It could be help from a coach for study reasons against friends of his OR
    Also, players by mistake open the analysis board, causing them to get banned for no reason
    (Imagine a sibling of yours came and clicked random buttons when you went to the washroom.)

  2. Sandbagging: Happened in my friend's case-
    He got banned for no reason-
    He had continuous network issues, causing him to auto abort, and for this reason, Lichess called it sandbagging

  3. Aborting: This is no reason to stop playing chess; it could be a misclick

Yes, online cheating must be stopped, but they should also check the cause: 1. Cheating: It could be help from a coach for study reasons against friends of his OR Also, players by mistake open the analysis board, causing them to get banned for no reason (Imagine a sibling of yours came and clicked random buttons when you went to the washroom.) 2. Sandbagging: Happened in my friend's case- He got banned for no reason- He had continuous network issues, causing him to auto abort, and for this reason, Lichess called it sandbagging 3. Aborting: This is no reason to stop playing chess; it could be a misclick