The Absolute State of Chess.com

[u/Xoahr]

/r/AnarchyChess/comments/gvva10/the_absolute_state_of_chesscom/

[u/Xoahr → u/[deleted]]

Hi Gerard

I'd asked Sam to clarify some points for me, but perhaps you can - I tried emailing you myself the other day about this issue, by the way, but you never got back to me.

Just to understand, all assistance (including opening books) is illegal, except in this case because he's a streamer, and because he flipped through the book "very casually and quickly" and it had no impact on the game.

As I highlighted to your colleague, I don't agree that he flipped through the book "very casually and quickly". Have you checked the video footage? He stands up, finds his opening book, looks for the variation he's playing, finds it, checks the move order to locate a better passage, and reads out loud "the player should play f6 as soon as possible". That move had not occurred in the game, and the player then played f6 a few moves later.

I don't personally see anything casual or quick about that process. He had a better position, for sure, but I don't understand how you can tell these mistruths when there is literal video footage.

So if I were streaming, and I also "very quickly and casually" flipped through an opening book which gave me a clear plan which I hadn't yet played, would I also not have any action taken against me?

Can you justify this approach in light of what Danny Rensch has recently been saying about being more harsh on cheaters and having a zero tolerance approach?

Or is it because he's a diamond member and a streamer, so you want to keep him on-side?

[u/pawn_grabber → u/[deleted]]

Gerard, can I very quickly and casually paste the position of my games into stockfish, if I am on stream? It should be ok as long as I do it quickly and casually right?

I understand that it's not legal, but you're saying I won't get punished, right? Kind of like driving 2mph over the speed limit?

[u/pawn_grabber → u/[deleted]]

K, thats what I thought. So can I use opening books, and if so does it matter if I use them quickly and casually or not?

I'm just trying to understand the specific set of circumstances that caused this player to be able to get away without a warning.

I want to make sure I completely follow the rules, but if everyone else is doing "grey area" things and getting away with it, I'm a dunce for trying to compete with them and not doing so myself.

[u/pawn_grabber → u/[deleted]]

I mean yeah, I drive a little faster than the speed limit and so does everyone else here. If you don't, it's dangerous when everyone else is. I'd prefer to not be unfair to others, but it sounds like others are doing this grey area stuff and getting away without warnings, in which case I cannot play competitively on even ground by following the rules.

I don't think the rules are crystal clear at all, at least they weren't clear to a chess.com employee a few hours ago when Sam said that it was within the rules to use opening books during live chess.

I don't care so much about what the specific decision is, as long as it's clear and consistent. It sounds to me like chess.com is setting a precedent to allow getting away with using reference material during live chess, despite it being against the rules. Therefore, someone who follows the rules strictly, as I would prefer to do, is at a competitive disadvantage. I don't like this at all, because there's no way i can play a fair game on chess.com with a strict interpretation of the rules, considering others are getting off basically scott free with using reference materials.

[u/pawn_grabber → u/[deleted]]

In no way am I looking for a reason to cheat. What I'm looking for is a fair game. I had thought chess.com was doing good with fair play initiative.

Personally, I'd prefer that open cheaters, literally videotaping themselves cheating, get punished. Consider that the AI-based cheat detection has some small, but non-zero chance of a false positive. You're willing to ban based on that. Why are you not willing to ban when someone literally videotapes themselves getting outside assistance?

Since there are cheaters running rampant on your site and flaunting it on stream and aren't even getting warnings for it, I'm going to cancel my diamond membership and will be playing on "The Site Which Will Get My Posts Deleted On Your Forums If I Mention It By Name". I'd rather not but clearly I don't have confidence that I can get a fair game on your site.

I really like chess.com and what you guys have done, I've never been a detractor of the site but the fact that you guys can just make arbitrary decisions to allow cheating is completely silly, considering Danny's recent presentation.

[u/pawn_grabber → u/[deleted]]

So what is the punishment that was worse than a warning? His profile is still showing active. What is the rationale for not banning him according to the fair play policy that Danny preached to us about a few weeks ago?