When you are beaten by an engine

It's happened to most of us, I'm sure. You enter a section of games, play pretty well, but get smashed to bits by a mentally challenged imp who reduced his duties to recording secretary by transferring engine moves into his game - against you. It's difficult to prove, so what to do?

1. You can whine, whail and lament about the injustice of it all

2. You can start drinking heavily.

3. You can see a psychiatrist and get to the root causes of managing this injustice that has you thinking of 20mm ammunition with armor piercing shells.

4. You can go back (after the emotion has cooled) analyze that game to the best of your abilities, note your good and bad moves, and start improving in those areas which need improving - and make yourself a stronger player.

I don't like engine cheats; they are pathetic creatures, but how we react to them can make a big difference. 🙂

@mchill said
It's happened to most of us, I'm sure. You enter a section of games, play pretty well, but get smashed to bits by a mentally challenged imp who reduced his duties to recording secretary by transferring engine moves into his game - against you. It's difficult to prove, so what to do?

1. You can whine, whail and lament about the injustice of it all

2. You can start drinkin ...[text shortened]... ngine cheats; they are pathetic creatures, but how we react to them can make a big difference. 🙂

@venda said
5.Just forget about it.
Ratings on here don't really matter and you don't get anything for winning a tournament except a picture of a cup

@mchill said
Ratings on here don't really matter and you don't get anything for winning a tournament except a picture of a cup

True, but I find the contrast of a white-on-gold cup design to be aesthetically pleasing. 😏

@venda said
In that case,I can only suggest delaying entering a tournament until late.
If you see someone already entered that you suspect of cheating,don't enter.
You may miss out,but there's plenty of tournaments.
Alternately,join a club that run lots of tournaments your suspect is not a member of.
Dark dragon(club 383) is one such club.The leader is willing to create any type and length of tournament you want.

@mchill

Although it happens, the blog is testament it is not as common as people think
especially under 2000. This is where I fish for my examples and the reason why
I cover blunders so much., to show it is not as rampant as on other sites.
Of course I've seen a few games that look dubious...very dubious however
these are very few and even then I give the benefit of doubt.
Despite the leap in AI humans can, occasionally, play very good chess

If you are convinced you have hit an engine,, and a lot of the times you have not,
and you face the same player in a tournament just resign before making a move.

@greenpawn34 said
@mchill

Although it happens, the blog is testament it is not as common as people think
especially under 2000. This is where I fish for my examples and the reason why
I cover blunders so much., to show it is not as rampant as on other sites.
Of course I've seen a few games that look dubious...very dubious however
these are very few and even then I give the benefit ...[text shortened]... times you have not,
and you face the same player in a tournament just resign before making a move.

@Very-Rusty said
@greenpawn34,

There was a time they had game Moderators, but disappeared years ago. I heard lots of rumors but don't know the real reason for it. Were you on that Team of Game Moderators? I am assuming it would be often very hard to tell 100% if the person was using an engine?

-VR

@moonbus said
A single game is not sufficient evidence of engine use, and even then only after the game is out-of-book. Some Sicilian and Ruy Lopez lines go very deep... To be dead sure, one would have to analyze twenty or more games, and one would have to guess which engine to use and which version of which engine. Stockfish is now up to v17.1, but v10 was already strong enough to wipe th ...[text shortened]... o detect the cheat. Hardly worth the effort, IMO, given that there is no prize money at stake here.

@Very-Rusty said
@moonbus,

I do understand multiple games would have to be analyzed to even take a guess at it. What I am saying is one can't be 100% sure if the person is cheating. Never mind money, I am talking about playing on a Site where it is fair to everyone. I don't want to be playing an engine EVER!!!!!

-VR

@moonbus said
I don't like playing engines either. I learn nothing from them. Effectively speaking, this site runs on the honor system. A routine cheater could be detected, I suppose, but I do not see any practical means of detecting an occasional engine-cheater.

@Very-Rusty said
@moonbus,

Having close to an expert level rating you probably would know you were playing a Chess program better than people around my little rating.
Some people have no honor!!!

-VR

@moonbus said
I don't understand people who use engines vs humans. There cannot be any real satisfaction in beating a human by using an engine. I can understand playing an engine to improve one's technique or for studying a game post-mortem, or for endgame analysis.

@greenpawn34 said
@mchill

Although it happens, the blog is testament it is not as common as people think
especially under 2000. This is where I fish for my examples and the reason why
I cover blunders so much., to show it is not as rampant as on other sites.
Of course I've seen a few games that look dubious...very dubious however
these are very few and even then I give the benefit ...[text shortened]... times you have not,
and you face the same player in a tournament just resign before making a move.

HI Rusty,

No I've never been mod.

I recall quite a while ago every other thread was about cheating
and paranoia here was rife. Everyone was raising a red flag against
everyone else.
Members were getting banned not for cheating but for naming cheats
or insulting each other. Some of the threads were quite septic.
It was all quite funny.
My last red flag was about 15 years ago when I started the blog.