I like to play classical games on 10+ minutes. How do I know if my opponent does not use a second program, or second computer, to find the best moves and therefore plays much stronger than he/she actually is?
Unfortunately, you really don't. You also don't really know even in bullet; it's not that hard to set up something that reads moves from the page source and feeds it into an engine (the hardest part would be integrating the engine, getting the moves is absurdly trivial). However, lichess has pretty good cheating-detection, both automated and manual. So you can feel pretty confident that your opponent is not likely to be an obvious cheater, and if you suspect someone, you can always report them so the lichess staff can use their manual tools and good ol' brains to figure it out.
It's worth noting that once a cheater is caught, they are simply no longer allowed to play *rated* games - when playing unrated games, you can check if you are playing against someone that lichess thinks has cheated by looking at their profile (hovering over their name will often do it as well). Here's an example of an account that is flagged in this way for reference: en.lichess.org/@/SB6 . When you find that you're in a game against one of these players, resigning will not hurt your standing in any way (since it's unrated), and aborting the game is also generally fine (however, I believe lichess will time you out for a few minutes if you abort too high a percentage of your recent games).
If you're asking about when to report, some common signs are:
- The player's last several games on their profile show 0 inaccuracies, 0 mistakes, and 0 blunders
- Once they reach a worse position, they suddenly become much stronger players and no longer make mistakes (because they've turned on their engine)
- They spend a similar amount of time on every move they make, even obvious moves (because they are reading the engine's output first and always trusting it without calculating themselves)
- In a critical position, they leave (as in, red arrow thing for a ping icon) for a large amount of their time, and come back to instantly play an incomprehensible move (because they turned on their engine to check what the critical move is)
I don't think any of these by themselves (unless the person does the same thing every single time) really say anything, but if they start coming up over and over again for the same guy... might be worth a report.
It's worth noting that once a cheater is caught, they are simply no longer allowed to play *rated* games - when playing unrated games, you can check if you are playing against someone that lichess thinks has cheated by looking at their profile (hovering over their name will often do it as well). Here's an example of an account that is flagged in this way for reference: en.lichess.org/@/SB6 . When you find that you're in a game against one of these players, resigning will not hurt your standing in any way (since it's unrated), and aborting the game is also generally fine (however, I believe lichess will time you out for a few minutes if you abort too high a percentage of your recent games).
If you're asking about when to report, some common signs are:
- The player's last several games on their profile show 0 inaccuracies, 0 mistakes, and 0 blunders
- Once they reach a worse position, they suddenly become much stronger players and no longer make mistakes (because they've turned on their engine)
- They spend a similar amount of time on every move they make, even obvious moves (because they are reading the engine's output first and always trusting it without calculating themselves)
- In a critical position, they leave (as in, red arrow thing for a ping icon) for a large amount of their time, and come back to instantly play an incomprehensible move (because they turned on their engine to check what the critical move is)
I don't think any of these by themselves (unless the person does the same thing every single time) really say anything, but if they start coming up over and over again for the same guy... might be worth a report.
Yes, it makes sense. I just thought all these by my self as an hypothesis and I don't think any of my opponents so far did it After all I am no very strong and I wouldn't care all that much being on receiving end of a cheat. It's just for moral reasons I guess. Thank you for your reply.
I only play in tournaments for almost a year and played 1600 parties. Any party I have not got a computer player. Play more in tournaments, Lichess.
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