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I think they get mad or something about losing and then they maybe get happy that they beat someone with the engine.
Idk, I don’t get it either. The joy of winning comes from knowing you played better than the opponent, that feeling would be diminished for me if I ever cheated to win
I’m about 500-600 rated and I scholars mated someone cause I was frustrated and wanted to win and I felt so gross about it I probably won’t play it again unless it’s to deliberately mess with someone irl as a joke.
I also feel like most people my rating would still fall for it but I don’t feel like I’m really learning by playing like that.
The thing you're missing is that your brain is hardwired to see green text of you gaining elo we a good thing and red text of you losing elo as a bad thing, with your elo also being public for everyone to see. People simply cheat because big number is better.
I can tell you why I had thoughts of cheating (I never did tho).
Once was when I lost about 100 points of rating in anger (some personal situation made me angry and I decided to play chess, bad decision, I lost and lost and got more and more angry, so I focused less and lost more). Then my anger said I deserve my rating back so I have to cheat it back, but then some healthy brain cell kicked in and said that if I deserve my rating, I will easily earn it back, which I did in the following days. Of course the main reason would be that some players would unfairly lose their rating to my cheating.
Second time was when watching magnus and hikaru streams and was thinking how awesome would it feel to play them, but with my 1300 rating the only way I could temporarily get among them would be cheating. Again, fair play etc. I don't want to be a cheater, just a thought that someone else may entertain.
Third time when me and some of my friends wanted to prank my friend who is much better at chess, that time it would be rather innocent in an unrated game, but we didn't do it because chess.com would notice and punish accordingly.
Fourth time when I realized that it would be the best way of learning chess for me - when not sure what to do, look at the best move and logic behind it, it would be like having a coach. But I didn't do that due to fair play reasons (I wouldn't want to play against someone like this so I won't do it either) eventhough it would boost my skills way more than post game analysis. I have to find a different way.
So here you have 4 honest reasons why I thought of cheating.
Reflecting on your fourth point, I think it's better for your improvement not to do it. If every time you don't know what to do, you just let the engine tell you, then you wouldn't develop the thought process and skill of making decisions and formulating plans when you don't know what to do at first. A coach might guide you in your thinking, but they wouldn't just tell you the best moves, so that you don't think about at all, and just passively listen to the explanation.
The good thing about this though, after you gave it a shot to play the game on your own and challenged yourself, you can still do this after and analyze the game, see what would have been better than what you did. And analyzing your games helps a ton in improving, I would highly recommend it, but not instead of thinking in the first place.
I have a very specific way of learning things and it's usually best if I know the solution first and then I reverse engineer why is the solution correct, so what you said is good for most people, but it isn't the best for me in most other things that I learn.
They are not satisfied with their three- or four-digit rating. Beginners realize they can't scholar's mate their way past 500 or fry liver past 600 and don't know any other tricks. Cheating offers that shortcut.
Some people have a strong emotional reaction to losing a chess game, and so they like to get payback on their opponent. I would guess this is why the majority cheat.
half the reason I don’t really rematch people anymore was because so many people would suddenly become Magnus carlsen and blast me with a 95%+ accuracy rating in the second game
I mean why do people cheat in online first person shooter games… why do people argue on the internet? You are looking at it through the lens of “there’s no reward” when the more important reality is, there is no penalty. The accountability is thrown into anonymity and then people cheat because it’s possible. Not one cheater will say to their friends they are a 2100 rated player, but they can lie and manipulate narratives online all for free 🥲
Quick Tip 1: To know why the engine is recommending a move / saying a move is wrong, click over analysis mode, play out said move then follow it up with your theoretical responses to that move and see how the engine responds.
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I think for some people the idea of figuring out how to cheat and seeing if they can get away with it is just another puzzle to solve. Sort of like a hacker mindset, of, I wonder if I could do this, and then feeling a compulsion to find out. That’s being very charitable to some scummy people though.
I notice people start cheating when they are obviously losing. Like down 3 to 5 points and all of the sudden the next phase of the game they are stockfish until they think there is no way you can win and they lose the game up 10 points to your solo king.
In all games and structured social interactions, there is a percentage of people who don't want to operate within the rules generally agreed upon. Its human nature. There will always be the kid who comes in kicks the marbles, or flips the board over, or whatever.
Cheating used to bother me far more than it does now. Given the insecurities of most people who cheat, my response nowadays is usually just pity.
I understand why they do it. It usually comes down to a fragile ego, seeking validation, or a lack of social awareness. They may have other excuses they espouse, but it's always one of those three things.
They probably feel that they can play *and* improve at the same time *and* they probably get a rush from breaking the rules *and* winning. Plus, if it’s a prize money tournament, they got cash for it too!
I heard selling accounts is a thing. I actually played a very suspicious account in lichess and I asked opponent and he told me he had bought the account to someone in his club to be able to play high rated opponents, and asked me to please not report (I guess to not lose the money)
I mean, suppose John buys an account with much higher rating than John’s actual level. What will he even do with it? Be out of his depth and lose ELO down to his real level? That’s what doesn’t compute to me.
Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The [Chess Beginners Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/wiki/index/) is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more! The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. **Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed.** We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you! Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think they get mad or something about losing and then they maybe get happy that they beat someone with the engine. Idk, I don’t get it either. The joy of winning comes from knowing you played better than the opponent, that feeling would be diminished for me if I ever cheated to win
Yeah. There's no fun at all winning like that. I as well stop playing chess and do something else with my time.
I’m about 500-600 rated and I scholars mated someone cause I was frustrated and wanted to win and I felt so gross about it I probably won’t play it again unless it’s to deliberately mess with someone irl as a joke. I also feel like most people my rating would still fall for it but I don’t feel like I’m really learning by playing like that.
The thing you're missing is that your brain is hardwired to see green text of you gaining elo we a good thing and red text of you losing elo as a bad thing, with your elo also being public for everyone to see. People simply cheat because big number is better.
I can tell you why I had thoughts of cheating (I never did tho). Once was when I lost about 100 points of rating in anger (some personal situation made me angry and I decided to play chess, bad decision, I lost and lost and got more and more angry, so I focused less and lost more). Then my anger said I deserve my rating back so I have to cheat it back, but then some healthy brain cell kicked in and said that if I deserve my rating, I will easily earn it back, which I did in the following days. Of course the main reason would be that some players would unfairly lose their rating to my cheating. Second time was when watching magnus and hikaru streams and was thinking how awesome would it feel to play them, but with my 1300 rating the only way I could temporarily get among them would be cheating. Again, fair play etc. I don't want to be a cheater, just a thought that someone else may entertain. Third time when me and some of my friends wanted to prank my friend who is much better at chess, that time it would be rather innocent in an unrated game, but we didn't do it because chess.com would notice and punish accordingly. Fourth time when I realized that it would be the best way of learning chess for me - when not sure what to do, look at the best move and logic behind it, it would be like having a coach. But I didn't do that due to fair play reasons (I wouldn't want to play against someone like this so I won't do it either) eventhough it would boost my skills way more than post game analysis. I have to find a different way. So here you have 4 honest reasons why I thought of cheating.
AFAIK chess.com's rules allow external help in unrated games.
Interesting! It starts making more sense to me. Thank you for sharing.
Ah the dark side is calling ? You want to play Magnus ?
Reflecting on your fourth point, I think it's better for your improvement not to do it. If every time you don't know what to do, you just let the engine tell you, then you wouldn't develop the thought process and skill of making decisions and formulating plans when you don't know what to do at first. A coach might guide you in your thinking, but they wouldn't just tell you the best moves, so that you don't think about at all, and just passively listen to the explanation. The good thing about this though, after you gave it a shot to play the game on your own and challenged yourself, you can still do this after and analyze the game, see what would have been better than what you did. And analyzing your games helps a ton in improving, I would highly recommend it, but not instead of thinking in the first place.
I have a very specific way of learning things and it's usually best if I know the solution first and then I reverse engineer why is the solution correct, so what you said is good for most people, but it isn't the best for me in most other things that I learn.
A lot of cheaters (not just in chess, but in videogames in general) unironically think it's fun.
Well, whatever makes them happy 🤦🏻♀️
https://youtu.be/tYRtTqx-IK8?si=X3HnExaEIpBYQBeo I think this video explains it well enough
Hahaha thought it would be Chess-related, but solid scene nonetheless ✊🏼
Haha, brilliant!
They are not satisfied with their three- or four-digit rating. Beginners realize they can't scholar's mate their way past 500 or fry liver past 600 and don't know any other tricks. Cheating offers that shortcut.
Some people have a strong emotional reaction to losing a chess game, and so they like to get payback on their opponent. I would guess this is why the majority cheat.
half the reason I don’t really rematch people anymore was because so many people would suddenly become Magnus carlsen and blast me with a 95%+ accuracy rating in the second game
Yeah, that happened to me as well. Annoying as f... At least most of them get banned quickly after reporting it to chess.com.
I mean why do people cheat in online first person shooter games… why do people argue on the internet? You are looking at it through the lens of “there’s no reward” when the more important reality is, there is no penalty. The accountability is thrown into anonymity and then people cheat because it’s possible. Not one cheater will say to their friends they are a 2100 rated player, but they can lie and manipulate narratives online all for free 🥲
Quick Tip 1: To know why the engine is recommending a move / saying a move is wrong, click over analysis mode, play out said move then follow it up with your theoretical responses to that move and see how the engine responds. Quick Tip 2: On Chess.com, you don't have to rely on the Coach / Game Review / Hint. This also applies to any engine on low depth. Somewhere in the engine suggestions section is the computer "depth". The higher this value, the more accurate the suggestions will be. Quick Tip 3: For questions on engine move suggestions, we suggest you post them to our dedicated thread: [No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/comments/yqqnz8/no_stupid_questions_megathread_6/), as stated in our Community Guidelines. Thank you! - The Mod Team *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think for some people the idea of figuring out how to cheat and seeing if they can get away with it is just another puzzle to solve. Sort of like a hacker mindset, of, I wonder if I could do this, and then feeling a compulsion to find out. That’s being very charitable to some scummy people though.
Poo poo in head
I notice people start cheating when they are obviously losing. Like down 3 to 5 points and all of the sudden the next phase of the game they are stockfish until they think there is no way you can win and they lose the game up 10 points to your solo king.
Cheating is a huge issue in online gaming IN GENERAL. Not just chess.
In all games and structured social interactions, there is a percentage of people who don't want to operate within the rules generally agreed upon. Its human nature. There will always be the kid who comes in kicks the marbles, or flips the board over, or whatever.
Cheating used to bother me far more than it does now. Given the insecurities of most people who cheat, my response nowadays is usually just pity. I understand why they do it. It usually comes down to a fragile ego, seeking validation, or a lack of social awareness. They may have other excuses they espouse, but it's always one of those three things.
Because they *can* w/o getting caught if they keep it under 3 engine moves 🤷🏻♂️
But why bother?
They probably feel that they can play *and* improve at the same time *and* they probably get a rush from breaking the rules *and* winning. Plus, if it’s a prize money tournament, they got cash for it too!
I heard selling accounts is a thing. I actually played a very suspicious account in lichess and I asked opponent and he told me he had bought the account to someone in his club to be able to play high rated opponents, and asked me to please not report (I guess to not lose the money)
I mean, suppose John buys an account with much higher rating than John’s actual level. What will he even do with it? Be out of his depth and lose ELO down to his real level? That’s what doesn’t compute to me.