Don't let normal users to be paired with cheaters when searching for an opponent (even in unrated games)

So the title says everything. It's great that cheaters are not being paired with normal people in rated games, but when it comes to casual games, they also should be forbidden to play with normal people.

Imagine that there are people here playing as anonymous just becasue they want to learn chess or to try a new experiences. If they find themselves losing all the times with these cheaters who use engines, these potencially new users will be hopeless about chess and they probably will never sign up here.

Today I was paired with two cheaters in casual games and I had to resign after hovering my mouse over their nicknames and to find out that I was going to play against a computer.

It's incredible how many cheaters are here actually. I'm not going to discuss how carcinogenic they are for chess, but I just want to propose a solution for protecting the normal people who just enters here to play (and to try to win) a chess game.

If for X reasons the cheaters are not going to be authomatically banned, what about pairing cheaters with cheaters only?

@YetAnotherPlayer #1

I agree with you.
On Fics (freechess) they use the word "abusers", and there you can choose to avoid abusers completely by changing your personal formula.

I believe I read that Lichess wants to give chess engine abusers (cheaters) a second chance. That's why they get labeled, but if they say sorry loud enough, and promise not to cheat any more, they can be freed from the pink label.

I vote for an option in the preferences to block playing against cheaters all together.
I expect to be dealing with humans here, and not robots.
Losing against strong engines time after time is de-motivating.

Achja, if you play rated games I think you are automatically blocking cheaters. They can only play unrated.

Ok, sorry I didn't read the headline :)

#2 That's not the case. We only un-mark people if they can prove they didn't cheat, or if there's enough doubt to reconsider their case. Simply apologising doesn't undo the mark.

Yes, you can't play marked cheaters in rated games (the opposite would be kind of ridiculous).

> I vote for an option in the preferences to block playing against cheaters all together. +1

@Clarkey #5
Thanks for the info !

Is there a mark that shows you who the cheaters are?

That's great!

btw, i've played two games before in my past where the loser claimed that i was using a machine when i wasn't... what are the rules for how someone gets marked? (I've never used a machine or a friend or anything else to make my moves)

There are two common ways of getting marked as a cheater.

Either after a certain number of game analysis' or other suspicious behaviours the auto-moderator will autoban you. As far as I'm aware, it hasn't made a mistake.

Or, a user submits a report to the moderation team, who review it personally, and have access to about seven different pieces of information which can give a probability of cheating. It's usually pretty clear. When it's borderline, the moderators may discuss it to reach a consensus.

I think the automoderator does about 90% of cases.

@acja "I vote for an option in the preferences to block playing against cheaters all together."

I agree with this solution.