Helping Neanderthals

I love the primitive elegance of OTB chess, where one just simply moves a piece from square one to square two without the participation of the computer and its ever changing software.
However, since there are no chess clubs or people to play the game with where I now live, I just recently bit the bullet and am now playing live computer chess. But it is very depressing, because I KNOW FOR A FACT that opponents are "cheating" and using all sorts of "engines" against me. What to do? Play the game or not? So I've decided to throw integrity to the wind and sell my soul to the devil too. WTF.
I just put the first stain on my soul by buying "Fritz 13." But being a self professed neanderthal I have a few questions to ask and wonder if any of you might wish to assist me with somebasic questions that I have????

Originally posted by Gettare
I love the primitive elegance of OTB chess, where one just simply moves a piece from square one to square two without the participation of the computer and its ever changing software.
However, since there are no chess clubs or people to play the game with where I now live, I just recently bit the bullet and am now playing live computer chess. But it is ver ...[text shortened]... and wonder if any of you might wish to assist me with somebasic questions that I have????

Sorry, we can't help you.

Play blitz online. No cheating there, I think.

Originally posted by Gettare
I love the primitive elegance of OTB chess, where one just simply moves a piece from square one to square two without the participation of the computer and its ever changing software.
However, since there are no chess clubs or people to play the game with where I now live, I just recently bit the bullet and am now playing live computer chess. But it is ver ...[text shortened]... and wonder if any of you might wish to assist me with somebasic questions that I have????

The only thing about that is you are not playing you are observing, may the best engine win. You can't even tweek the program like you could a race car, a dragster or some such, figuring a better fuel mixture and so forth so its not like you know anything about the particular engine, except get the strongest computer you can afford, 4 cores, 6 cores, 8 cores, 12, etc.

That's about it for personal intervention in the outcome.

So an engine user learns nothing about chess, only how my engine did against HIS engine.

Not very satisfying, don't you think?

With OTB play, you win, you lose, the stronger player will almost invariably go over the game with you so you can learn.

What can you EVER learn from analyzing games from engines? Maybe if you are Kasparov or Carlsen or Polgar but down at our level....

Originally posted by danilop
Play blitz online. No cheating there, I think.

Oh there are tons of blitz cheats.

At FICS, you can type var to see what your opponent is using (Winboard, BabasChess,Thief,etc). Sometimes it will say something like Thief+Rybka. Very few of the non-guests are stupid enough to do it that way, but there are other ways as well.

In like 1999 or so (yeah-the stone age of computers), one of my friends (rated under 1000) went in his office and challenged another one (rated 1800) to a blitz game. He slaughtered the 1800 and told him afterwards how he did it. (He hit a button every time he wanted the engine to auto-make its best move.)

If that technology was equipped enough, today's will make your head spin.


As a personal observation, I've noticed that the majority of cheats that I have played were not using Winboard or Babas at FICS.
Thief (mostly used for bughouse, I think), x board (only somewhat), and the JEN (I may be spelling that wrong) seem to attract the most cheats.

I think it has something to do with their capability to display computer analysis. It's not supposed to during a game, but I imagine they found a bug or something around that.

You just have to play blitz and look for patterns if you suspect something.

For instance, I had one cheater make every single move of the game in the exact amount of time (It was like .03 seconds or something for every move.). That is a tell.

Also, the guys who bash out long winded combos without ever pausing (not even before or after) are suspect.
As are the ones, that let you play your tactical variations (3 or 4 moves deep), and then at the end pop out a counterattack of their own (that would be hard to see even on the move - not 5 moves ahead).

Cheats are everywhere, and they are not going away.

You just have to learn to spot tells and censor them.

I even noplay players that give me a bad feeling (for instance someone rated 400 points lower that never makes a mistake in 5 or 6 games).

I must say in the last 6 months or so, that at FICS, I have run into relatively few people that I suspect of foulplay. They must have moved on to more prestigious sites.

I know that computerabuse at FICS is very easy to contact and almost always replies to my emails with honest sincerity in stopping all the cheating.
The staff must really be dedicated considering the whole site is totally free.

Originally posted by Gettare
I love the primitive elegance of OTB chess, where one just simply moves a piece from square one to square two without the participation of the computer and its ever changing software.

Then why did you buy Fritz ? If you bought it as a training aid then fair enough. If you bought it to face off against other engines and non-engines online then you're two-timing your true love.

I KNOW FOR A FACT that opponents are "cheating"

Wait till you gloriously manage to beat someone 500 points higher than you... then get accused of cheating for your troubles, and you might start taking such certainties with a pinch of salt.

I would like to thank you all for your wisdom-packed comments and obvervations on my dilemma. Your gracious collective input has managed to create an engine for me. It's called INTEGRITY 101 and It says just play the game, love the game and ignore the noise. Dio vi benedica.

Originally posted by Gettare
I would like to thank you all for your wisdom-packed comments and obvervations on my dilemma. Your gracious collective input has managed to create an engine for me. It's called INTEGRITY 101 and It says just play the game, love the game and ignore the noise. Dio vi benedica.

"INTEGRITY 101" - I like it, more people should invest in it 🙂

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
Oh there are tons of blitz cheats.

At FICS, you can type var to see what your opponent is using (Winboard, BabasChess,Thief,etc). Sometimes it will say something like Thief+Rybka. Very few of the non-guests are stupid enough to do it that way, but there are other ways as well.

In like 1999 or so (yeah-the stone age of computers), one ...[text shortened]... e cheating.
The staff must really be dedicated considering the whole site is totally free.

I use Babachess, you cannot have engine analysis while a game is in progress. I don't
know about the other user interfaces though.

Originally posted by Gettare
I love the primitive elegance of OTB chess, where one just simply moves a piece from square one to square two without the participation of the computer and its ever changing software.
However, since there are no chess clubs or people to play the game with where I now live, I just recently bit the bullet and am now playing live computer chess. But it is ver ...[text shortened]... and wonder if any of you might wish to assist me with somebasic questions that I have????

I'm interested to know how you know your opponents are cheating.

You have only lost one game (by timeout) to someone graded 948!

Are you so strong that even with your oppnents using an engine you still win?

Originally posted by wolfgang59
I'm interested to know how you know your opponents are cheating.

You have only lost one game (by timeout) to someone graded 948!

Are you so strong that even with your oppnents using an engine you still win?

It's all a race between the irresistible, because-I-can corruption of today's humanity, and the artless innocent. The latter loses every time. Unadulterated cynicism distilled by witnessing the inevitable fall of the best in life. (It saddens me and hurts.) To answer your question: I don't know why I haven't lost unti now (oops, there it goes, I just resigned a game). Thanks.

Originally posted by Gettare
It's all a race between the irresistible, because-I-can corruption of today's humanity, and the artless innocent. The latter loses every time. Unadulterated cynicism distilled by witnessing the inevitable fall of the best in life. (It saddens me and hurts.) To answer your question: I don't know why I haven't lost unti now (oops, there it goes, I just resigned a game). Thanks.

Get real. You aren't playing any engines.