Making the best of engine cheats

I don't think I am a good enough player for anyone to bother using a chess engine to defeat me, nor would I recognize it if it actually happened, but let us consider what happens if some pathetic creature does this to defeat you:

You've lost some rating points and some time, but you have a game log you can study and learn from, once the games is completed, you can ask others here for advise. In short, you can use the chess engine as a training tool to improve your own performance. You can also report the suspicious game log to administrators for possible disciplinary action. In addition, with theeception of on's yearly dues, correspondence chess here rarely involves much money, so you've not lost much of that either.

Your opponent(s) both engine and it's lacky have gained a few rating points, but lost some time. The engine is unaffected, but the human has become nothing more than a subservativent under secretary for the engine, dutifully shuttling moves back and forth for it's electronic master, and since such humans are usually too lazy to bother analyzing completed games, the human has lost that opportunity as well.

Correspondence chess cheats are an unfortunate by product of our computer age, but recognizing these people for what they really are, and making the best of the situation when it happens will make your tournament experience a little happier.

If you want an engine to imrpove your game it would proably be best to go through your games and identify (with help of the machine) where you made bad moves (you can discern those which were detected by your Opponent as being human).
I did that, and in fact sometimes realized the Problem, nit that I learned overmuch.
I don't learn anything about the first five Options if they are seperated by very small amounts of value.
And I try to improve using chesstempo (were a Computer is judging my tactical choices without the necessity to Input everything 🙂

Originally posted by @ponderable
If you want an engine to imrpove your game it would proably be best to go through your games and identify (with help of the machine) where you made bad moves (you can discern those which were detected by your Opponent as being human).
I did that, and in fact sometimes realized the Problem, nit that I learned overmuch.
I don't learn anything about the ...[text shortened]... mpo (were a Computer is judging my tactical choices without the necessity to Input everything 🙂

Chesstempo sounds interesting. Is it free or paid and who has it? I assume it gives critiques like 'that move sucked' without saying exactly why, leaving it up to you to figure that out.

Originally posted by @mchill
I don't think I am a good enough player for anyone to bother using a chess engine to defeat me, nor would I recognize it if it actually happened, but let us consider what happens if some pathetic creature does this to defeat you:

You've lost some rating points and some time, but you have a game log you can study and learn from, once the games is completed ...[text shortened]... the best of the situation when it happens will make your tournament experience a little happier.

There isn't any value in playing an engine cheat that can't be gained playing one's own engine. The difficulty is that engines are effectively tactically perfect and most of us rely to some extent on opponents not seeing refutations. For example greenpawn relies heavily on traps, I spend a lot of time attacking and rely on inaccurate defences to get through. If a strong (i.e. stronger than me) human player refutes my attack I think I'll learn more than I would off yet another tedious machine inflicted defeat.

The only good engine cheat is a dead engine cheat. So really, it's a question of how best to use the corpse. Here are some random thoughts.

1. Donate to science for experimentation that would otherwise be considered unethical.
2. Chinese restaurants could make "bacon" out of them and save perfectly innocent pigs.
3. Law enforcement could use them for more realistic target practice.
4. New game shows where you get to dunk them in boiling oil as a consolation prize for not winning the millions.

Others...?

Originally posted by @bigdoggproblem
The only good engine cheat is a dead engine cheat. So really, it's a question of how best to use the corpse. Here are some random thoughts.

1. Donate to science for experimentation that would otherwise be considered unethical.
2. Chinese restaurants could make "bacon" out of them and save perfectly innocent pigs.
3. Law enforcement could use the ...[text shortened]... t to dunk them in boiling oil as a consolation prize for not winning the millions.

Others...?

The only good engine cheat is a dead engine cheat


I could go along with that, but since finding the little creatures that do this is pretty difficult, I was trying to make the best of an unpleasant situation. 🙂

Originally posted by @bigdoggproblem
The only good engine cheat is a dead engine cheat. So really, it's a question of how best to use the corpse. Here are some random thoughts.

1. Donate to science for experimentation that would otherwise be considered unethical.
2. Chinese restaurants could make "bacon" out of them and save perfectly innocent pigs.
3. Law enforcement could use the ...[text shortened]... t to dunk them in boiling oil as a consolation prize for not winning the millions.

Others...?

I would be interested to know why cheats cheat in a more general sense.
In a lot of situations it's for financial gain but that doesn't apply on here.
Another would be personal gratification , usually linked to sex outside marriage -that doesn't apply here either.
I can only think it's the thrill of cheating and not getting found out -a bit like petty crime e.g pinching something from a supermarket when you could easily afford to buy it.
What do you think?