DG, over at Boylston Chess Club points out a few recent posts about
cheating. These sorts of posts always get me thinking back to my days as a member of http://www.caissa.com which is a small, relatively old chess site that had a nice product. The trouble at caissa.com was that the admins saw the chess sight as a labor of love but not as their primary business proposition. Long periods of time with no admin interaction would take place and in the mean time the inmates ruled the asylum.
Well as with any place on the web, anonymity leads to some less than stellar behavoir. While the admins are away the mouse will play so to speak.
Cheating.. ahh yes, the reason I made this post. The problem with online chess (i've no experience with OTB tournament cheating to speak of) cheating is that it comes in a couple flavors. You have the cheaters and you have the disconnectors. On top of all that, and what finally pushed me off of Caissa.com was a message board ji'had about who was cheating and who wasn't.
What's worse than cheating in an online chess game, to me? People accusing anyone and everyone they lose to of cheating. That's just as bad sportsmanship as cheating itself. Names getting sullied, reputations spoiled, chess playing friendships destroyed and often with no real evidence. Which brings me to comparison of a persons moves to Fritz or Crafty. The rationale behind this supposed method of outing cheaters makes sense, but I question it in practice. Just because someones moves match a computer's moves does not, in and of itself, prove that person used a computer. It points to the likeliness of computer use. At what point does likeliness become enough evidence to tarnish an online persona? After 1 move? After 1 game with 85% simularity? Or after someone is 203/7 on FICS?
What needs to happen is these decisions need to be made by an abitrary Administrator. Not the players. The decisions need to be made even handedly and regularly, and by a human being not emotionally involved in the outcome of a blitz game. So back to what I was getting at... a good chess service needs live, involved, active admins. The interface and features are nice attractors, but the admins make these services run.
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5 comments:
I don't quite see the point. Maybe because I take only an OTB rating serious. But when someone cheats, he wins a lot of games, right? And then he will have a higher rating then me, so that I never play him since I use a formula. So what's exactly the problem?
Tempo,
I agree with what you said for normal games. But when you start playing in a league game like the teamchess games then it gets a little more problematic. I think Qxh7# makes very good points and I worry sometimes that the criteria for labeling someone a cheater and banning them from the league is a little arbitrary.
It is still just a game, and I don't worry to much about cheaters or cheating when I play. It does make good discussion though.
Pretty much I feel the same way. I play for the game, and if I lose to a computer user I generally just think they were a better player than they really are.
The disconnectors really tick me off though.
The big point I had which I don't think I got across was that the "OMG YOU CHEAT" accusation people out there ruined my experience at Caissa.com more than the cheaters ever could have.
I see.
Those accusations bear a resemblance with the opponents of Judit Polgar.
She said "I have never won from a healthy man" since every man who lost from her said that he has been ill recently and not quite recovered.
I agree it gives a bad atmosphere.
Even in a tournament I am inclined to say that a good cheater plays in a higher league.
Disconnecting is a different matter.
Maybe the disconnector should lose the game automatically when he is 2-3 pawnunits behind.
This is quite a timely topic. I was playing on Chessbase online/Fritz (Playchess) over the christmas and every 30 seconds there was a message .. Admin ABC has suspended player 'xyz' for a rule violation (using computer assistance).
It was both highly visible and a highly effective way of outing the cheats.
However there was a funny side of seeing Fritzes all powerful 'Admins' reaching into the massess to pull out some lowly patzers for summary on-line execution.
I though it ironic that it was fritz who was the first to be able to systematically root out the non pure (Arians??).
St Patzer has noticed his playchess rating rise significantly recently on the back of Fritzes diligent (ahem) .. extermination program.
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