"I read it carefully and I must admit that you hadn't missed any
point. You had gone through all the possible psychological intentions of the (C)heaters, explaining
the psychodynamic aspect of this unpleasant habit. It shows that you had thought and studied a lot
about this phenomenon and managed to give a very good account of what is going through a cheater's
mind, consciously or subconsciously. Your sense of humor is also admirable.
If there is
only one homepage highlighting the adverse impacts of cheating on internet chess sites, it should be
as comprehensive and convincing as possible.(...)
I hope this brief message has given some feedback, mainly as a
chess player's view, and to some extent as a junior psychiatrist's."
"I think your part #8 ('The pilot's perspective') of your 'Cheating on ICSes' homepage describes really well the mind of a cheater, namely that *censored* character. (...) You're absolutely right on your part #8. This guy is totally like that. This guy is a megalomaniac. He cheats in everything. He wants to be somebody in chess but doesn't have the ability.(...)"
"By happenstance today, I saw an admin referring (on a question) to your page and address. By curiosity I looked it up. WELL DONE! Not the least your analysis of the cheaters psychological trigger mechanism.(...)"
"I would like to commend you on your astoundingly precise website. The psychological
perspective is detailed and real. It explains to the letter how cheaters behave, inside and out. This provides everyone with tremendous insight into how the cheater's mind works. (...) it increases my suspicions about one of
my classmates, who was (known for a fact) a disconnector in the past. He is
always looking to beat the 'system,' and never cares about long-term
improvement.(...)"
Deep inside, before they started to cheat, cheaters felt and sensed they were losers: in their mind, winners don't lose and losers don't win. They couldn't stand who they were as chess players; they probably can't stand who they are in life too. They couldn't stand the ratings they had, the useless social visibility they had on an ICS.
Overall, (C)heaters can't stand losing. They can't stand losing blitz and games that they believe, in their mind and soul, should have been rightfully theirs, losing games that, in their mind and soul, should have been rightfully won by them. They can't stand the lousy rating they have: they need the rating numbers they believe should rightfully be theirs. They often (if not always) think and claim that they're underrated, that their current rating isn't an honest, fair indication of their true strength. In their mind, all of this should not be. In their mind, all of this is upsetting, annoying, unacceptable, undeserved, unfair, intolerably unfair.
(C)heaters also hate being humiliated. They hate this more than anything else. They hate being humiliated on the chessboard, in tactics, being positionally crushed, being victims of winning attacks, losing to lower rated players, losing several consecutive games to players in their rating range, etc...: this sort of event is excruciatingly upsetting (probably traumatizing) for them. They hate being helpless observers of their own losses. They hate being insulted, ridiculed, humiliated, ignored in real life too. They highly value the respect, unconditional respect they deserve from others, no matter what they did, no matter what they do.
What mainly differentiates honest playing members' psychological profiles from cheaters' psychological profiles is the way they react to chess frustrations: how far cheaters are willing to go to do whatever it takes to "arrange", to "fix", to "solve" the problems they see, how far they are willing to go to twist and distort their reality and their own chess image in a virtual reality (an ICS) to suit their emotional needs. What differentiate honest playing members and cheaters is the attitude toward one's situation (problems, contradictions) and the chosen means to correct it, to deal consequently with it, to proceed accordingly from it, otherwise to live with it.
The unconscious goals of cheaters are to adjust (like a thermostat accurately setting a room's temperature) as they wish
You see, if cheaters could twist, distort reality so that it would perfectly fit all their needs,
desires, emotions, they would all have the World Chess Champion title, the GM title, the genius
title, the Nobel Prize title, the NFL, NBA, NHL, WBA champion titles, rings, MVP awards, the Oscar
trophies, etc, etc, etc...
If reality - theirs, yours and mine - was a jigsaw puzzle, cheaters would use scissors on each piece of it to re-shape, reconstruct the whole puzzle.
Please fasten your seat belts: we're now ready for take-off.
(C)heaters can't stand game swindles that happen to them; they can't stand that they erred so
bad with stupid moves they made. They can't stand the "obvious cheap shots" they missed,
ignored or underestimated. They can't stand all these "good", "winning"
positions they mishandled, the nerve stressing time pressures that blew, screwed everything up for
them, these mouseslips that ruined everything, that botched "all winning" pawn endgame in
time scramble, this dusty mousepad or iffy mouse which let them down in time pressures, the stupid
mouse that wouldn't obey accordingly/fast enough, that annoying lag which disturbed them and caused
those blunders they wouldn't have normally done. They can't stand being flagged in totally
winning endgames such as 
+ 
vs 
+ 
, being flagged in "rubbish dead-draw" Rook+pawns
endgames, they can't stand "idiots" who won't resign because they have "no
chance" when down 2 pawns, they can't stand being victims of "lucky" ICS members who
were in "totally lost positions", they can't stand "cowards" who won't accept
a rematch, etc, etc, etc...
From their perspective, all these chess happenings should not occur to them in their blitz and games: these are just irritating, very irritating, unacceptable, unfair, undeserved abnormalities, intolerable irrationalities of chess and blitz chess. Such abnormalities should not exist for them or never happen to them. In their mind, they are victims of such abnormalities. "Normal" chess, as they see it, should be an entirely fun, fulfilling experience for them, not a frustrating one. That's their point of view on the matter of competitive chess on ICSes.
Temperature: normal. Wind velocity: normal. No air
turbulence expected. Current speed: 400Mh. All conditions are good, all systems are operational.
Perfect!
From a
psychoanalysis point of view, (C)heaters and disconnectors have one and only one point in common:
emotional immaturity. The way and manners by which they deal with it is qualitatively very different
though. Cheaters have a much more "radical" and exhaustive approach when letting loose
their emotional immaturity, when living their inside world.
While disconnectors are emotionally spontaneous, reacting to frustrations, the (C)heaters are much more controlling people. Disconnectors ventilate theirs impulses while (C)heaters use chess playing software to methodically control theirs emotions and fulfil theirs drives and "chess" needs.
What characterizes dedicated cheaters is a systematic, cold-blooded, intentional, deliberate, premeditated corruption of the game conditions themselves; an assured satisfaction of their own emotional desires, chess needs and chess fantasies is their goal. The cheaters' behaviors are all controlled, methodically planned and premeditated actions focused at pampering their emotional needs. By (C)heating, dedicated cheaters can have full control over the process of "their" play and games from move 1 till the end:
A dedicated active (C)heater is like a pilot in an airplane cockpit: the take-off (opening) is pre-programmed, the auto-pilot (chess program) is usually on, the airplane's destination is known (an assured win) and the landing is usually a piece of cake. 
All that are left
to operate are a few buttons, switches, to monitor warning/notification lights (vars, formula, seek, etc...), during flight and everything should go fine, according to the flight plan. He enjoys the view and the trip while he controls the "chess game" airplane from his cosy pilot seat. Sometimes, he makes proud and competent announcements (finger notes, kibitzes, shouts) at the mike for his passengers. The passengers are his previous victims, just a bunch of anonymous people talking, chatting, playing, ...whatever..., seated somewhere in the back of his "airplane": all of these people are pretty insignificant people existing somewhere pretty far behind his control cabin. Anyway, there are dedicated ICS stewards serving meals, handing out pillows, taking care of them, so no need to bother.
The sky is the limit
When a (C)heater cheats, he's more or less assured (assuming a good chess program, fast hardware, judicious selection of opponents) to re-live over and over, from games to games, from honest-playing victims to honest-playing victims, all the good feelings of winning games and rating points. He's assured of fulfilling his chess power fantasies while observing all sorts of spectacular brilliant tactical shots, good looking moves, courageous aggressive attacks, finely anticipated defenses in double-edged positions, hair raising tactical complications, etc... chess as it should be played, rationally played, true and pure. Sometimes, he even gets praising comments from some of his passengers regarding the trip he just gave them.
Furthermore, he can now confidently play any time controls he wishes; if he meets another "pilot" like himself, it will be at least with equal opportunity, with the same type of "airplane" chess game. No fear here. No need to complain for him. No frustration of waiting for some kind of server justice either. Isn't that lovely?
From the (C)heater's perspective, all the bad irritating "abnormalities", "irrationalities" of ICS blitz and chess disappear thanks to (C)heating while, at the same time, all the good, enjoyable sides of it are ideally fulfilled, increased and improved. That's why a cheater (C)heats. (C)heating is an excellent solution from the cheater's perspective; (C)heating is not the problem. In the cheater's mind, in his fantasies, the chess playing software is like an "Aladdin's lamp" for his "chess" needs, emotional desires and all his "chess" problems. The chess playing software acts like a censor command suppressing, neutralizing, sterilizing all the chess "abnormalities", "idiocies", "irrationalities". It also enhances all the other aesthetic parts of chess that he loves; "chess" and "his" chess games then become purified, beautiful, true. A chess program transforms his ugly-looking, disgusting, crawling, rampant "caterpillar" chess games into beautiful butterflies, dragonflies skilfully flying here and there.
This is marvellous: I have travelled so far hundreds of
miles in a single month, much more than I could do on foot in 5 full years. And best of all, I'm
not even tired.
Disconnectors have a much more honest, realistic view of themselves and of what they do: obviously, no disconnector will persist on saying he's not disconnecting. Disconnectors are not known to be liars or to be people who can't face themselves, who can't admit what they do. Disconnectors are not necessarily into fantasies of rating glory, chess power prestige, ego-image. Again, disconnectors are spontaneous, impulsive people. As the game starts, a disconnector doesn't know at all if he will disconnect in that game. Disconnectors want to make their opponents feel by force their frustrations: "I won't resign: I won't finish that game. I won't let you win that game easily. You'll have to suffer your own impatience to get these rating points" is the main idea silently conveyed when they disconnect. It's an impulsive urge that usually follows up right after an important blunder, a critical mouseslip, a costly oversight after a long defense, a declined takeback request, etc... Cheaters are a lot different in many aspects.
Is there a pilot flying this airplane?
By controlling all the processes of "their" play, of "their" games, cheaters develop self-control of their own emotions: they no longer suffer from any anger, stress, frustrations. No more emotional instability, no more suppression of emotion after a lost, any lost, no more psychological distress in difficult or unclear positions. Cheating becomes more or less a necessary remedy, a stabilizing force dominating their emotional insecurity, instability. Their fantasies in their inside world become uninhibited and uncensored. Cheating in their subconscious mind is a suitable compromise between practicing the leisure they "love" (at a level they dreamed of) and suffering frustrations (ego-pains of losing, failures of rating goals, distasteful losses, etc...) that inevitably occur when playing chess, normal chess that is. Their psychological contradictions create a subconscious bridge between their enjoyments of playing chess and their needs to avoid hurting themselves (anger, frustrations after what they consider an unacceptable outcome). This bridge is always at the subconscious level and involves strong emotional drives. Cheaters can't deal maturely with normal chess and can't live without "normal" chess as they see it.
All blue sky ! Not even a single cloud up here.
Cheaters are also more subject to fantasies of power
and prestige. They want to be somebody. A chess rating in a microcosm world (like a chess
server) often acts as compensation for lack of self-esteem, prestige, credibility, status in their own personal or work life where they might be more or less just a "nobody".
Disconnectors want to control the feelings of frustration of their opponents while cheaters
want to have absolute full control over all of their own emotions, satisfying their
"chess" needs, satisfying their chess fantasies. Disconnectors impose their emotions on their opponents.
Cheaters impose control over their own emotions: their opponents, in their subconscious mind, have more or less no existence, no emotional meaning. For cheaters, honest playing members are just accessories, objects, elements to use for their psychological drives and "chess" needs. They are just anonymous character strings with 4 digits arranged in column lists, like a phone book filled with names and phone numbers. Totally anonymous people with no identities, no personalities: they even become little colored dots on a graphical seek chart.
Cheaters don't see nor know their victims and their victims can't see nor know them. Ideal, balanced, non-visual conditions of anonymity help reduce any kind of normal shame, guilt "sensations" that would occur in a real live one-on-one interaction. Such environmental conditions are important for cheaters so that a psychological bypass, overcome of moral inhibitors can be accomplished repeatedly, game after game, from opponent to opponent. After a few hundreds games, these minor moral details have no conscious presence, no conscious existence, no conscious relevance. After a few hundred games, words like "fair-play", "respect of opponent", "fairness", "equitable ethical game conditions", "handshake" have no true existence, no minimal equation to some sort of reality, have all lost their objective sincerity, authentical experiential fidelity, symbolic connotation, emotional evocation, moral meanings since they don't relate in any way to what they have been doing in their past few hundred games.
In order to cheat in each of the games they played and will play, cheaters bypass and
overcome all moral meanings of fair-play, fairness, equitable ethical game conditions. They also
bypass and wipe all consideration regarding the people they abused. Each time a cheater cheated, he
deliberately didn't care about the people he was abusing. Each time a cheater fooled people, he
deliberately didn't care about them at all. Each time a cheater lied to people, he willingly,
intentionally, deliberately "cared" about pursuing unshamelessly, surreptitiously what he
was doing.
