"I'm also a member of the SSDF organisation and I have tested lots of chess programs over the years, when you do this you get a feeling for how a computer plays chess. And due to this I have to say there are a lot of them on the servers. And as a chesslover I think it stinks, that the ethics are not followed. I feel exactly the same as you do."
"But make no mistake about it: it's actually the mediocre grandmaster that has the biggest chance to get away with some cheating since it would not look that funny if he qualifies for the Live Event."
Judit Polgar GM in an OnlineWorldChess.com interview in October 2001
"1: While playing on ICC, I used a computer chess program to assist my play, which is against ICC rules. I apologize for this and promise not to use assistance of any kind in the future.
2: My second line is to responde to the many good friends I have on ICC. Yes...thats true! I used chess program support (Genius 4 with 1 billion moves opening) to play against some TITLED players that in MY OPINION were doing the same.
3: Never used chess interfaces like GNU chess or similar chess programs for bullet games.
4: In 1983 I reached a performance of 2570 ELO points....then leaved chess competitions."
I believe (C)heating is present on all ICSes and at all rating levels, in blitz as well as in standard time controls. Right now, I estimate that about 5% to 9% of all members were and/or are cheaters: that includes regular cheaters, occasional cheaters and "caught" cheaters.
As chess software improves year after year in many areas of play, the (C)heating phenomenon is bound to get worse. The price of commercial chess programs playing at at least 2400 blitz rating is now very affordable to the general public.
Within a few months, chess programs will most likely play more humanly some aspects of their chess play: it's very plausible to anticipate major problems for all ICSes. People having difficulties in controling their emotions, anger and frustrations (or simply succombing to intense frustrations) may want to get revenge by using their chess software themselves on those they think abused/(C)heated on them, or will want to simply get rating points back the fast way with any next opponent. Also, each group of new ICS members always brings a sub-group of cheaters or eventual active cheaters. Each cheater plays dozens and dozens of members who all get abused by this single cheater, regardless if they suspect him or not. Now this is what I call serious damage in any game server community.
The (C)heating problem/phenomenon is already quite serious and is bound to get more so. Already there are many signs that everyone on ICSes aren't naive anymore and don't have blind faith on one another. Many have simply ruled out playing standard games. Others limit themselves to playing blitz games with etime < 7 and finally some go deeper and only play 4 0 or 3 0 games. There are also subtle signs of paranoia in some members' finger notes, exaggerated defensive comments in some other finger notes, some may have a huge noplay list, others might have a thorough complex formula with time criteria, ratedness parameters, etc...: all this behavior is part of what I call a personal strategic attitude regarding (C)heaters. We all know the strength of current popular commercial chess programs: we all implicitly, at least, acknowledge the clear and distinct possibility of cheating/(C)heaters on ICSes.
Everyone now recognizes and has in mind that cheating exists on ICSes and is "alive" on any ICS. You see, each of us
knows at least one member who was caught cheating on one Internet Chess Server.
