Is this legal/ethical ?

I recently joined a thematic tourney in the French. Almost immediately the highest rated player in my group had 12 points, checking his games the second and third players had resigned both their games with him after only one or two moves but continue to play on against the others. Is this ok?

Originally posted by Richard B
I recently joined a thematic tourney in the French. Almost immediately the highest rated player in my group had 12 points, checking his games the second and third players had resigned both their games with him after only one or two moves but continue to play on against the others. Is this ok?

I've seen this happen before in high-rated tourneys where someone is suspected of engine use and other players resign immediately to avoid wasting points. You can't know if this is the reason, but since there are two other players involved it's unlikely to be just childish bad sportsmanship.

So how do I find out who is using a chess engine?

Originally posted by Richard B
So how do I find out who is using a chess engine?

If getting that information was easy there wouldn't be a problem. You could try a PM to one of the resigners, since outing people in forums isn't encouraged here.