Hello guys!
It has been a year since I join the site and I want to share my opinion about my time playing with you.
I am a Class A player from, I have played for my University club team for many years. When I moved to the States, I stopped playing over the board, and where I live there is no chess club, it takes me more than 2 hours to go the nearest chess club. I found RHP through the link on Game Board Geek site.
I can say I 've had a pleasant experience and I think I have made some friends.
I am competitive person and sometimes a bad loser, when I lose I can't sleep and try to find where I made a mistake. Some people play chess like a hobby, a chance to meet friends. I don't play chess, I analyze, I take chess seriously, sometimes too seriously.
Along the years I have built what I think is a decent repertoire, I play main lines because I like learning opening theory, and most of the time, I play the same lines time and time again. I buy chess books regularly and I also own a database the one I use constantly to see the evolution of theory.
KNOW THY ENEMY
When I was in the university the chess trainer of the club team who was an IM, told us that Kasparov before giving a simultaneous session analyze the last 40 games of each player he was going to face.
Sometimes if I have the time, I also do that, I see games from other players, I try to figure out it they are
tactician or strategical players. I want to see what lines they like and what they avoid.
I had 4 games against Solving In Style User 716828, they are in the opening.
OK. I can't use my games to analyze him but I found out that nobody has defeated him and if you are playing against him the most you can expect is a draw.
Surprise: He had 4 draws against TheBigKat.
And I suspect something weird is happening with Solving In Style games.
Solving In Style vs. TheBigKat Game 103244305
I loaded the pgn in a GUI with the free edition of Houdini, I let the engine analyze every move for at least 2 or 3 minutes and I could not believe what I saw, almost all the game is the first selection from Houdini. The game leaves the theory on move 5 (black turn), so nobody can say they are following a grandmaster game.
40 out of 52 (76.9% ) moves made by SIS are the first option from Houdini.
5 out of 52 (9.6% ) moves were the second option of Houdini.
If you accumulate both results you get a 86.5% of first and second options.
45 out of 53 (84.9% ) moves made by TheBigKat are the first Houdini options.
5 out of 53 (7.5% ) moves are the second Houdini option.
And now we get a 92.4% of the moves were first and second options.
The other game:
TheBigKat vs Solving In Style Game 10324300
In this game black leaves the theory on move 4.
29 out of 37 (78.4% ) moves made by TheBigKat are the first Houdini options.
5 out of 53 (13.5% ) moves are the second Houdini option.
And now we get a 91.9% of the moves were first and second options.
29 out of 37 (78.4% ) moves made by SIS are the first option from Houdini.
4 out of 37 (10.8% ) moves were the second option of Houdini.
If you accumulate both results you get a 89.2% of first and second options.
I really think something weird is happening. This players really play accurate moves.
I tried to raise a Fair Play Ticket against Solving In Style because I think he has broken the TOC.
Do you know what? I could not do it because the Fair Play Ticket feature is reporting an error.
In the end I sent my findings to feedback, reporting this like ABUSE. RHP has not answer me, not even a "we are aware of the problem, out staff is analyzing the situation, we will contact with you in near future..."
First: RHP administration knows that Solving In Style is a multiple account user.
According to the TOC, he should have been banned long ago.
Second: Solving In Style has a flawless record, he has only drawn 13 games out of 295. And 4 of the 13 draws are with TheBigKat, who is suspected to be an engine user.
Third: Solving In Style presence is ruining the tournaments. princess xena and SteveWil gave up their games without making a move, this is like a secret, everybody suspects but nobody can do anything.
I can't tone down this because is a fact. Honest players are afraid of Solving in Style.
Fourth: I have played twice against TheBigKat and I think I played against a human being.
I hope the administration can be up to the task, and investigate Solving In Style games.
When I wrote all this, I wanted Solving In Style head on a plate, because I have friends that are playing with him and they are going to be defeated probably in an unfair way. I am sorry, but I can't trust Solving In Style and I am only trying to get a draw in my games with him because I know I will never win and he can easily outplay me at his whim. DB users like me can get a good middle game but in the end, we will lose against perfect play.
It would not be fair if we don't see things from Solving In Style point of view, probably he is a strong player, that is something I will NEVER know for sure.
TheBigKat and other top players have a bad reputation. Can you imagine a new member reading in the forums about cheaters. If I knew that my adversary is USING AN ENGINE ON HIS EVERY MOVE, I would be seriously tempted to use mine just like a blunder checker because I don't like losing either.
The funny thing is an engine user detects another engine user automatically, they know each other, but they both have dirty hands and what is worse, they can't say "I am playing against an engine user" because they have a lot of "skeletons" in the archive games.
I have heard RHP administration is tired of having to deal with cheaters (in the end, they are also u$er$).
"You are cheaters, you deal with your problems".
I can take that we can't get rid of the engine users, but we need to find a way to prevent the honest players to be playing against them.
If RHP is keeping a blind eye about this problem, the people that make the site a good place to be are going to leave.
When I started playing I only saw a board and pieces, but I started reading the players' profiles I saw that many retired people, men and women play on the site.
I think that most of the people here, take chess like a hobby, they play using their own knowledge not checking online theory or books.
I am an DB user, and I have a book of every opening I play, I take chess too seriously. And I restrain myself from entering to some tournaments because it is not going to be fair for the other players. I have decided only to play banded tournaments but even a 1800+ is not enough to make the game level.
At the beginning I thought playing Duel tournaments would be cool, but the truth is I feel remorse when I beat a 1500+. If I am posting here is because I believe we can find a solution for everybody.
I am more calm down now and I have stopped asking Solving In Style head on a plate.
Let's face it, we can't banned players unless RHP administration decides to do it.
If they are going to stay, we need to implement mechanisms that prevent honest players facing cheaters. I have some ideas.
a) The Fair Play ticket was a way for us to expose cheaters, not any more. It would have been cool to have a system like in the real life sports. OK. you won a tournament, let's see some of your games.
b) Let's make a BLACK LIST, we can not ban them but we can let people know who we really suspect are not fair players. People are going to complain about this because it affects their reputation, I think they should have thought about it before using a chess engine. Yeah, I know nobody wants to lose, yada, yada, yada.. .
c) We need tournaments with more bands, probably a 2000+ and 2200+, 2300+ bands. Bands can prevent honest/hobby players to face players that have "high level skills".
d) What if we create another category, DB users, I enjoy strong opposition and I have no problem playing players that follow 20 moves from theory.
e) There was a Queen's gambit decline tournament, I saw TheBigKat name in the list of players, even though he has a bad reputation, I wanted to play with him because I wanted to study the match: Capablanca vs. Alekhine (most of the games were QGD), and I thought it was the perfect chance to learn something about this old opening. I have been so busy with other games that I did not get into the tournament. Yes, I know, it sounds CRAZY but I wanted to play with him.
f) THE CLEAN LIST or Honor List, lets make a list with the names of honest players, why not? we have a "ranking" that many people think is a SHAME. Let's have a list of players you can trust. People that can say "check my games, I am clean".
g) Probably we need more club tournaments or tournaments with invitation. What I want is to give reasonable options to the people.
i) I am going to mention this, just to be sure I am covering all the bases, let's give the people what they want, this suggestion is going to create controversy.
Let's create tournaments for advanced chess, but the user that plays that kind of tournaments CAN NOT PLAY ANYMORE with normal people. I know, nobody is going to expose themselves, but probably users with new nicknames could find this interesting. Engine Tournament?. I know it sounds too crazy
UPDATE: I offered two draws in early (14 moves) to Solving In Style and he agreed, I am glad he took them because I was wetting my pants, I know I can't win, but I also think he is a reasonable person.
I don't want to end this with a low note. I want to hear what you think. PLEASE, DON'T INSULT THE MEMBERS, we do have problems and believe me RHP moderators would be HAPPY if they delete the whole thread. If you are going to post, please, bring ideas, I really believe we can find a solution for all of us.
It has taken me 3 days to write this, because I have been editing a lot. I know some people are going to try t...
Originally posted by radicalcppRHP doesn't do anything about cheats anymore. Sorry, you're jolly well screwed if you get matched up against one of them.
Hello guys!
It has been a year since I join the site and I want to share my opinion about my time playing with you.
I am a Class A player from, I have played for my University club team for many years. When I moved to the States, I stopped playing over the board, and where I live there is no chess club, it takes me more than 2 hours to go the nearest ...[text shortened]... days to write this, because I have been editing a lot. I know some people are going to try t...
It seems to me that a lot of your concerns could be met if you were to run a club or clan with the positive points from your list.
In this way you could encourage a group to form of say high ranked DB enthusiasts and then organise tournaments within this group. As a group you could accept or reject members.
I am guessing there are already high band tournaments going on like this.
I think the difference is whether
a) there are enough people interested in your concept
b) you can promote it enough to get a big enough group along and continue
Majority of players on RHP I think have no interest in how many of the top 20 are cheating as it has no relevance to them.
This fight was lost years ago.
If you play correspondence chess on this site, or any other online chess site, and start meeting the people with the highest ratings, then you'll find that they will use an engine for at least some of the game.
My advice - play faster time controls on a real-time chess site because correspondence chess in all its forms is dead!
Originally posted by radicalcppThank you Martin Luther
Hello guys!
It has been a year since I join the site and I want to share my opinion about my time playing with you.
I am a Class A player from, I have played for my University club team for many years. When I moved to the States, I stopped playing over the board, and where I live there is no chess club, it takes me more than 2 hours to go the nearest ...[text shortened]... days to write this, because I have been editing a lot. I know some people are going to try t...
radicalcpp, I have played both players you mentioned and agree 100% with your assessment. Unfortunately nothing will be done about these machines. They are not actual chessplayers. As for myself, I do not even own any chess programs nor have I used any database for over 5 years here. It is a safe bet that most of the top 100 rated here are just machines.
I prefer to put a positive spin on this situation. Despite "handicapping" myself by playing honestly I have the most tournament wins of anyone on the site and just recently achieved a wins minus losses total of 10000.
Sadly, this thread will be deleted by moderators soon. Just as many before it have. You got a thumbs up from me !
- Joined
- 29 Apr 08
- Moves
- 72691
I certainly agree with your concerns about the highest players on this site. Solving in Style plays very precise moves, and has yet to lose, while playing 200+ games at the same time! If that is not a red flag, I don't know what is.
Now I'm not going to pretend to be one of the better players on this site (I'm a 2000 player) but I have encountered many 2100-2200 players similar to radicalcpp who have already left the site or plan to, because they claim the 2300-2400 players are cheating with a search engine. I find this very sad since I thought the joy of chess comes from the one on one competition between 2 players. If someone cheats by using a search engine, I don't understand how they get true satisfaction from the victory.
Unfortunately, cheating will always exist in competition, but I do think there should be consequences if caught. Certainly when radicalcpp posts a message about possible fraud on the site, it should be looked into. Redhotpawn should at least acknowledge his message or why have an area to post such concerns? I know from looking at bios in the past that players have been kicked off the site for using search engines, so why stop now?
I love playing on redhotpawn. However, I don't love playing against machines. I find it concerning when someone else answered this post saying redhotpawn would remove this post. If they were to do that, then the management of this site would be telling everyone that they could care less about the integrity of their site. Let's hope not! C'mon redhotpawn, please step up or you will be endorsing more players to succumb to using search engines to keep up.
I'm surprised someone hasn't started an independent Game Analysis Company that would hire out to RHP, etc., to analyze requested players' games and give the player a "cheat-probability" percentage. If RHP included the number in a player's profile, at least you'd know beforehand that you might be playing a cheater. RHP could also have everyone who reaches a certain level (2000?) automatically analyzed.
- Joined
- 16 Dec 04
- Moves
- 56692
Originally posted by John OsmarThat's probably the best solution I have heard, in theory. I imagine that the sheer volume of games would make it prohibitive in practice though.
I'm surprised someone hasn't started an independent Game Analysis Company that would hire out to RHP, etc., to analyze requested players' games and give the player a "cheat-probability" percentage. If RHP included the number in a player's profile, at least you'd know beforehand that you might be playing a cheater. RHP could also have everyone who reaches a certain level (2000?) automatically analyzed.
It's annoying that some cheats are so obviously cheating yet continue to ply their muck. I am imagining that most of them must be sub 20 years old and living at home, yet to realise that their rating is of no concern to anyone except themselves. They must have a lot of spare time on their hands too. I find it more-than-mildly amazing that people are so willing to waste their precious time in generating a status for something they will remain largely anonymous for.
They [the naughty cheaters] will not go away though, that is as certain as death and faxes. Well, I suppose e-mails have nearly done away with the latter, but you get my point.
This is funny, I messed up the link of the first game.🙂
Solving In Style vs. TheBigKat Game 10324305
I did my best to remove the errors.
I want to thank everybody that contributed to the forum.
Good luck with your games. 😉
What is wrong with banning "analyzed" players using their games from all tournaments if the analyzed games show such a high percentage toward cheating?
Second, when finding tournament winners are cheating, remove them from the tournaments they have entered, and remove them from even being able to be named in the winners lists. Give credit only to non-cheaters.