"If you need more libraries, just register them and send a message to POTZY online. I'll make the account free. Thanks for your hard work."
Eric Peterson, ICC partner and share holder
If your suspicions are serious and sound, make a report to your ICS: give your ICS details,
explanations justifying why you believe memberX cheated. Make the suspicious games (evidence)
available for future investigation by your ICS by saving them in your game library/journal. Games
saved in a library/journal have all the data about them, including time taken for each move. You may
think that you're the only person complaining but maybe one or more members have already made a
complaint about memberX. Without your input, the case against memberX may not be as strong and
memberX might not be caught because of your silence. A member who cheats on a regular basis and who
is not caught will keep on abusing other ICS members and will keep on cheating for dozens/hundreds
games. A newcomer to an ICS who starts cheating will reach 2400 or so within a short period of time.
So a cheater caught when he's 1800 and rising will prevent others from being abused by this cheater.
Remember that patience is part of the game of chess and so is waiting for a positive detection of a
cheater by your ICS. If you want to do more, then examine the relevant games with a chess program.
If there is a high quantitative correlation between the moves played and the suggested moves of the
chess program, then your suspicions have a good foundation. If you still want to do more, then
examine some of the games in memberX's game history/archive: maybe you can find other good elements
to support your convictions and suspicions and add them to your report. Taking the time to make a
report or to edit an email isn't fun but it is the only proactive way I know to deal with such
abuse.
Many members take the lazy approach: they +noplay memberX and/or +censor memberX. This approach doesn't help anyone: memberX will keep on cheating on other honest members. Also, by +noplay-ing and/or +censor-ing memberX, you might be making an error. No one can be absolutely 100% sure that this or that game was played with a chess program, not until an exhaustive AI study is done regarding this issue with all commercial chess programs revealing a clear way to detect computer play and to distinguish human play from computer play.
Remember: you are an honest playing member and you deserve some kind of justice
when you're a victim of abuse like cheating. It's up to you to get involved
and contribute to a collective control in your own ICS community.
