Cheating Online (FAIR PLAY FORDMOISES)
Please, before reading this section, keep in mind that it is not my intention to have the absolute truth of the subject, I just want to contribute a grain of sand in this complex subject.
We are currently experiencing moments of great difficulty due to the situation of COVID19 and this has caused the chess guild to turn to online gambling, this has of course its positive and negative consequences; let's evaluate in detail.
Positive consequences: Chess has had the gift of being the most economical and practical sport in the world, so playing has never been a problem, however, it must be considered that it is increasingly difficult to have the opportunity to attend serious competitions for purely economic reasons. issues, so the online space plays a fundamental role, thanks to a portal such as Chess.com, we have the opportunity to share, play friendly tournaments even tournaments with monetary prizes, this effectively constitutes an advantage in terms of general sharing between players of all over the world with minimal internet cost in the comfort of our homes.
Negative consequences: The general concern of the entire world chess family is the issue of "modules", it should be noted that for this reason chess has not been professionalized online as if poker did. Playing chess online represents in all players the constant fear of being cheated during their games by players who dirty the board using programs that play better than the world chess champion.
Background: Certainly most people know the typical way of cheating, using an external equipment in which an engine is installed and copying each movement in order to make the best play according to the module, it is also well known that the Current security systems of the main online chess platforms can easily identify whoever copies a game with external help 100% with the engine, but from here the doubts begin:
They can make a certain number of human moves and then in difficult game situations use the module, how could this be detected?
- Only use the module in a short period of the game to gain an advantage and then play in a human way.
- Use the module only at the end of the game.
These doubts are the ones that normally torment the legal chess player who, by not getting answers, often draw wrong conclusions about the security schemes of these portals, doubting their efficiency.
The security schemes of large pages such as Chess.com among others are secret to the public and this is because if these secrets are known, the "cheats" could go under these schemes, this creates greater concern in the chess family due to Because of not clearly knowing how potential cheaters are audited, constant distrust and even paranoia of online chess is created.
Known security schemes: The largest chess portals have the highest priority to avoid users who engage in these practices by all possible means.
First of all, it should be noted that all the games that are played are automatically audited by a bot, which works on these portals, this bot evaluates the% accuracy of each game with respect to the strongest engine known so far, you have to Considering this still does not explain the questions that we cited previously, for this not only is the% audited, the time per movement, common repertoire, game level, even repertoire changes are also included in the constant review, in this way they are already being answered some of the most common questions.
In fact, the known procedure to cheat, taking into account the above described, is only functional in games of more than 2 minutes in view of doing it with less duration, the player who does these practices would quickly run out of time since it would be necessary to play on two boards different, in the module and in the chess portal.
BOTS: The other way that is barely emerging is the use of a bot that has the characteristics that it can move the pieces of the board automatically or mark the square where a certain piece should be moved, this mode is undoubtedly the most worrying of all and it is precisely what the programmers of portals like Chess.com focus on. The use of the bot in online chess is not something new, and prototypes of these programs had been created since 2006. Currently this is becoming fashionable by players who have publicly stated that they use or have used these tools to win their games.
Disinformation campaign: There are currently hundreds of videos on pages like YouTube where Chess Masters explain how "cheats" use these mechanisms, these videos far from helping the objective transparency of the game create even more distrust in the security system of the main pages online, they state that there is no control and that you can cheat with impunity all the time without being detected, this is not correct and of course you have the appropriate computer tools to detect these players.
Mouse detector: Anyone with basic knowledge of the main aspects of computer science or programming knows very well that mechanisms can be designed that allow us to know where we click in a certain space of a web, how many clicks have been made or even in what tab we use. In normal pages this is something common and totally normal and in a chess page these schemes are also applied to guarantee fair play. These portals know exactly where, how and when we click on their board, in this way it is guaranteed that if a player has a strange behavior (automatic bot) in the movement of the pointer, a detailed analysis of the same is already started and eventually it will be done. get penalized because a bot doesn't move the pointer like a human. Other types of bots allow the human to move the pieces but shading the square of the board in which the cheater must make his next move, leaving the option to move to that square or not, despite this, in this case only the Chess fact . com also detects that a box is externally shaded by another program.
Manual analysis: In addition to all this, Chess.com has a computer-trained team and Teachers who can review suspicious games in case security is breached in one way or another. Let us remember dear readers that the plans of a machine are not the same as human behavior in a game of chess and this is easily detectable by previous game behaviors, which is automatically analyzed by Chess.com and other renowned portals.
Scanner: Have you ever wondered why absolutely everything is stored on Chess.com? In the first place to maintain an online database to which we all have access, but it also works to obtain precise statistical data, heat maps of movements, differentiation of elo according to modalities and especially so that in case of a complaint, we can consult each of the suspicious games of the Nick involved automatically.
Conclusions: There are still many pending issues in this regard, I reserve this for the concern that if too many details are given it would give more ideas on how to go under the security schemes, but at the same time I can say categorically that currently the Chess.com's anti-cheat security is extremely effective with the only disadvantage that there are cases that take too long to be detected and this causes inconvenience when playing a tournament with prizes since in one way or another possible winners are affected of these tournaments. Remember that just as we have worked to use these programs against our sacred game, there is a professional team that is dedicated to refuting all these evils.
Undoubtedly, there will be no shortage of those who say that they can violate the system, as if that were a kind of blessing or one who will try to deny these claims, however these people, although they show pseudo-tests of how to cheat while going unnoticed, do not show the nicks with the who cheated, why normally such nicks are already sanctioned.
Ignorance creates myths, let's not fall for the misinformation campaign, let's be honest and let those who understand the subject take care.
Dedicated to the Chess.com coaching staff who tirelessly work to make this portal a safer and cleaner place every day to play what we like the most.
Own authorship
Moises Ford
