SANDBAGGING...?? What for ?!

I considered the idea of dropping my rating for the hell of it. But then came the idea of losing most of my respect as an adequate Chess player.

I don't think sandbagging is nessecarily cheating, but I do think that the idea is stupid. I mean, dropping your rating to get a prize from a tournament? I would think dignity is more important than a trophy or medal for your collection (Which is narcicistic in a way.) And the fact that it's a waste of time and you don't gain any knowledge or skills from it is up left idiotic. You only live once and you're wasting your time on trophy hunting.

It's a really stupid thing to do, but not cheating.

Admiring your own rating seems just as narcissistic.

The reason sandbagging is unethical isn't about the person doing it, but what it means for that person's opponents.

• Fixing game results by playing with multiple accounts or losing intentionally is also considered cheating

This is in the chess.com rules.

https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/articles/1444879-cheaters-cheating-what-you-need-to-know

It´s cheating.

Is it cheating to resign simply because real life pulls me away from the board? Like needing to go to the bathroom, for instance?

I noticed some thing sort of liek sand bagging. 

Someone who created a new account, then started entering tourneys at there  1200 starting rating. Keep in mind this player is a 1700+ and the tourneys are for <1299 ( players rated less than 1300). talk about a cheap way to try to rangle some points from someone. I found it very distasteful to be honest and to be brutally honest, pathetic. But at the end of the day, to me this is just chess, but to others, such as the folks that had entered thouse tourneys, it is pretty unfair. 

People who cheat, sandbag and prey on low rated players are pretty easy to spot for the most part. To me that really isnt about chess but rather pulling one out for ones ego.

i notice dendy has alot of wins by time out the players average online game is 4 moves long many are less

this does seem very strange that he should always face opponents who time out

@I am second : thanks. I read up on live sandbagging in the mean time.

@CTB745 : yes, when your score changes drastically, the glicko adjustment tries to maintain a kind of ''rationality'', as if considering the leaps as accidents, and reajusts your rating rapidly to the stable level it had reached previously as soon as you win again.

@talfan : I agree, why so many timeouts on the other side too ? Maybe he got boycotted?

It seems dendy has started to play again... i still don't understand the fun of this!

4 April 2015: dendy was banned yesterday.

That is not cheating.

Maybe it has changed, and maybe it only applies to free accounts, but I had to play 20 games when I joined, before I was allowed to enter a tournament.

Also, I lost my connection for a week once, a few months ago. Timed out on 20 or 25 games. That could look like sandbagging if someone looked at my account. And again, I could not enter tournaments until my timeout percentage went below 10%.

Life happens.

It is one thing to time out because of real-life events but quite another to do it on purpose.  It is a part of on-line chess to play someone rated below their abilities.  When someone starts here they start with a low default rating and then gain points as they rise to their true worth.  If someone does it on purpose it is dissapointing but they cheaters chiefly hurt themselves.

Glicko RD.  When you view all your stats you will see this.  It is complicated to say the least and confusing.  So I will teach you how I use it to my understanding and you can read the reams of articles to figure out any more you want to know. The rating is a formula that takes your wins, and losses and compares them to the level of ratings that your opponents have, factored over time.  That's all the definition you’re getting. Theory: example:  your chess rating is 1000, Your Glicko RD is 100.  What this says is you will play consistently between 900 - 1100 chess rating.  So the higher you’re Glico RD the more inconsistent you are. Put into use:  You are the T.D. of a new tourney you started and you have a couple guys you dont know and have never played.  First thing you do is go to the full stats.  Go to the graph and set it for "all time" you are looking for big drops, and big rises.  If there are too many big drops, "something fishy" but could be a hospital, or jail visit, like mine, but if there are sharp rises right after the drops, not gradual.  There is a problem. "Poacher most likely" No one comes from the hospital or jail and shoots straight back up.  They work their way up.  Next check his high and low rating.  If he was real high once and now he is low, how long has he been low?  For a while is a good sign means he's off his game, or playing better people.  Etc...  Then you look at his average opponent.  If it's a lot higher than his rating, it's a warning that he could be poaching, or if it's a lot lower, he just got done poaching.  It should be pretty close to his rating.  Next you look at that Glicko RD the higher the number, the more inconsistent he is.  A high Glicko is a good sign that he is a possible poacher.  A glicko in the neighborhood of 40 and he is playing pretty solid games and not forfeiting a bunch to get a lower rating.  Then you go find out who is most frequent player is and check him out the same way you are checking him.  If he is a poacher, his most frequent player is most likely one too.  Lastly you check total number of games compared to total number of tournaments he has placed in.  I have 2700 tournament games played and have won about 40 trophies.  If he has a huge amount of trophies compared to the number of games he has played.  Another clue.  Put it all together and say with all the warning signs I see, do I want him in my tournament when he can play 75 points or more above his rating according to his glicko RD.....NOPE! There now you are a poacher hunter my Friend.  

Thanks for the great post. Good instructions as to how to discover a sandbagger...

The question was WHY the sandbagging? Since the day I started this thread, I've understood the logics of it, especially for those who cheat, win too many games and are scared of being banned, or for those who are tired of losing and need to be paired with lower rated players.

If you have ideas of your own, I'd be happy to read them :-)

Here is your answer.  To gain either trophies, or points whichever drives the ego of the person poaching.  They either want to feel like a bigshot by having the most of either to try to impress people with.  This could go all the way back to their childhood or even having a small sexual mating device. either way it is done to appease a persons ego that can not do it on the own without cheating. I have seen them even form into their own little band and hold 3 man tournies consistantly just to crank up their learderboard points.  Maybe Your missing the this.  they poach to drop their rating so that they can join all the low rated tounaments and win all the trophies, after that it becomes all psyc as to why they would have a need to do this.

:-)

Another way of ''playing games''...

thanks

I´m playing an opponent who lost 50 games in a row yesterday and his rating went from 1.700 to 1.257, many of them without even making the first move!

I sympathise with sand baggers to be honest. How empty must life be to gain some satisfaction by beating over matched opponents you are matched with because you purposefully lost games. It's depressing at the heart of it. Any points they gain, they will have previously lose anyways, winning a tournament you're overqualified for can't really be satisfying can it? Sandbaggers don't deserve our disdain, they deserve our sympathy. To put into context, it's like someone joining a BJJ club, earning a blue belt and then quitting, starting from scratch at another club so they can tap out beginners until they get to a blue belt again. It's a halt to progress and it's sad. As I said, I sympathise.

@jessicatheprodigee not really, if the person is really a 1900 player but has just pretended to be 400, it isn't funny, it's just sad.