How good is too good

If one of the worlds top 10 came on here using an alias, would they get banned? I mean because they would come across as an engine user? Know this might get some slating but genuinely curious

I think if a highly-ranked titled player signed up for a CC website, they would probably make it absolutely explicit who they were in their profile, perhaps even going so far as to contact the administration, and notify them that they've got a GM or Correspondence GM in their midst.

Of course, the world's top ten OTB players are probably too focused on OTB to play here, and the world's top CC players are probably too busy with more challenging CC games to play here.

I was also wondering along the same lines. Take a look at chess.com for example. They have a plethora of titled players ranging from candidate masters to grandmasters. If these players decide to join on here, wouldn't it be expected and natural that they achieve high ratings here?

Originally posted by EinZweiDrei
Of course, the world's top ten OTB players are probably too focused on OTB to play here, and the world's top CC players are probably too busy with more challenging CC games to play here.

Agree, but that was the hypothetical situation presented in the original post.

Originally posted by EinZweiDrei
...perhaps even going so far as to contact the administration, and notify them that they've got a GM or Correspondence GM in their midst.

Of course, the world's top ten OTB players are probably too focused on OTB to play here, and the world's top CC players are probably too busy with more challenging CC games to play here.

My very limited understanding is that the top players can beat engines, and so I assume they would not play the same moves as an engine.

Therefore, when admin sleuthed their games played here there would be no evidence of foul play, and they would not get banned.

Originally posted by brit commando
If one of the worlds top 10 came on here using an alias, would they get banned? I mean because they would come across as an engine user? Know this might get some slating but genuinely curious

1) their moves will not necessarily be more engine like.

2) Why would a chess pro spend their free hours playing amateurs? I don't sit around talking about my work with amateur enthusiasts either.

Plenty of people who have devoted significant portions of their lives to chess are here. What separates them from professionals may be expressed merely in terms of livelihood and title. Surely among us are people who can crank any chess game up to hardest and win. People like this enhance RHP. If someone was banned for being 'too good' that would be a true shame.

Spotting people playing with an engine should be simple. If you had full access to the RHP DB (the raw sql, not the gamesexplorer) you could easily write a program to pull down the PGNs, hand them to a few engines, and look for agreement patterns. I wouldn't be surprised if RHP and other chess sites don't already do this to identify suspicious users.

Weyerstrass would beat Carlsen most of the time on RHP. Trust me.

On a commmmmmmmpletely different note. Rybka 3 is rated 3000 and Carlsen 2800...

A 3000 rated player would beat a 2800 most of the time.

Carlsen is 2800 in classical chess, who knows how strong he would be in CC.

someone i know was wrongly banned from icc and he isn't even an IM, though he has beaten GM's in serious tournaments.

I think a 3000 engine always beat a 2800 player.

Misssing the point that we don't know Carlsen's CC strength- he could be 2600 or 3100 who knows.