How to spot cheaters quickly

Introduction

Wanna get passed 2000 rapid? You will play a lot of cheaters there. Like way too many cheaters. Because of this, most of the proper 2000s who actually worked hard to get there start getting really tilted and become much weaker players, and even weaker as many beginners also make new accounts at 2000 (who most likely cheated to get there). 

Sure,  you will get your rating back when these cheaters get caught eventually, but you will often get really tilted. Especially when you don't know they are cheating.

Types of Cheaters

When people cheat, they all play in the same way or incredibly similarly to each other. Below are 3 types of cheaters:

1. Complete Cheaters
2. Throwaway Winners
3. Smart Cheaters

Of course, I have very much simplified this as all 3 of these only focus on the quality of how they played the game and not their time usage for example. But to keep it simple we will only focus on how they play games.

1. Complete Cheaters

Just game review the game. If you see 95% or higher, it is very suspicious. What makes it even more suspicious is when the game is long (at least 30 moves) and they get 95%. If you can, check their winstreak. You will find way too many wins which can help you identify they are cheating. Also when you are playing the game, check their time usage, as if they take a consistent amount of time (especially at super easy moments), they are very likely to be cheating. 

2. Throwaway Winners

(OMG I hate these people so much. These people are pure sadists!)

Game review will not tell the full picture at all with these people. If you play a game but you see that they have literally given you a win by playing like a 500 (no offense), and yet they somehow are managing to stirrup so much counterplay that they win the game, then they are almost 100% cheating. They will not get caught for a long time, but eventually will be banned in under a week. If you are lucky, perhaps they will throw the position so hard that you can win it with ease, but it is really frustrating to play them.

3. Smart Cheaters

I haven't managed to catch any of these people, but I'm sure people are smart enough to come up with this way of cheating. Maybe I've played many of these people but never noticed. These people are just not gonna get caught. But still best to mention them just in case. For these cheaters to be possible, they must actually be decent at chess themselves. Their accuracy probably (I'm guessing) will be a little higher than normal, but they will be playing too and will not throw games so quickly by themselves and therefore will understand which moves are suspicious and which moves aren't. Perhaps instead of cheating the whole game, they will cheat at critical moments where there is only one good move which may be why it is hard to catch them.

Probably the one reason I've never played anyone like this is because none of these cheaters are that good at chess so cannot do this, but again I have a feeling there are so many like this.

Typical Factors

Different lines

While your cheating opponent will be using the engine, they will try their best to hide that they are cheating. To do this, they will try to play 2nd or 3rd engine lines to get away. Most of these cheaters have minimal chess understanding so will not realise how weird some of these moves are compared to the best moves. These people are actually harder to catch because the accuracy is not as high, but you can tell they are a cheater very easily.

Time Usage

Cheaters will also try to vary how much time they spend too, such as taking an extra minute before playing the move the engine suggested in 3 seconds. As they often don't understand chess very well, they often do this on the most obvious moves. Time management is a very good way of catching cheaters. They just don't know which moves normal people spend more time on.

Winstreak

For some cheaters, you will notice they perhaps have lost 15 - 20% of their games. Most people (and this is why people get so surprised when they find they have magically gotten their elo back) will see they have not won all their games or 90% of their games and ignore this cheater. Check these losses, because they can tell a lot about their real strength. You may find they lost in 10 moves by resigning in the opening, or gave away a huge amount of material, which is a huge giveaway that they are deliberately trying to lose a few games to avoid suspicion. As much as they hide themselves with these games, discovering them will show a lot that they are a cheater.

Understanding?

Cheaters do not understand what it means to be at the ratings they are at. I mean why should they be? They have walked over so many people to reach that rating. If possible, try and talk to the opponent at the end of the game. If you have a suspicion, but you aren't certain they are a cheater, don't directly ask if they were using an engine. Instead, first complement them on "their" great play and ask them what their OTB and FIDE ratings are. 

If you have a FIDE rating, ask them what their FIDE rating is (if not, then don't ask this). If they do not really wanna say what it is, ask them what their OTB rating is. 

If they won't budge then ask them what they did to get so strong. If they say something like "this is not my main account" then ask them the rating of their main account (if they don't answer this then don't persist this further). If they say that they have done a lot of puzzles or that they have played a lot of games, tell them how hard it is to reach the rating you are at and that surely they had to do much more than just that to reach it.

After you asked them what they did to "get so strong", ask them about strange moments in the game (e.g when they played a weird sacrifice or played a very weird remanouver to constrict you, just anything suspicious). I'm telling you: they will say that they were calculating very deeply or some nonsense like that, but this is just further evidence they are cheating. If they say this, then it is very likely they are a cheater! After all, the best thing an engine can do is keep calculating further and further into possibilities, but the cheater doesn't see what it thinks of the final position and has no idea it exists and is not good enough to understand whether the final position is good or bad for them by themselves.

Chatting with them can confirm your suspicions upon whether they are a cheater or not because these questions will show if they actually understand what they are doing.

I once asked one person who had a new account and played a super weird line against my grunfeld what their fide rating was. To my pleasant surprise, they were actually a 2000 fide rated player so I didn't report him (and he explained the moves logically and explained some of the lines he was calculating after he beat me. He gave me very useful advice which I apply in many vote chess games here which is to play the most frustrating moves against my opps to punish them if they play a weird opening).

But of course, I wouldn't tell you to do this if I haven't found extremely suspicious people by doing so! Below is a conversation I had with someone who I thought was 100% a cheater (do not talk this rudely to your opp if you aren't 90% certain they are a cheater):

"NEW GAME
Anirudh_23 (2275) vs. aoi_is_so_boosted (2276) (10 min)
win +8 / draw +0 / lose -8
Anirudh_23: can't beat something much stronger than me
something 1500 above me
it is really frustrating to play engines you know
I hate this
of course, that was a basic tactic
but seriously? Like no human can paralyse someone that much
aoi_is_so_boosted: im not
i just found this good move
Anirudh_23: How come you took so long to play a forced move
aoi_is_so_boosted: i was thinking for my next moves
like what you were gonna move next foo
too
and chatting too
Anirudh_23: most people play bxc6 bc they don't want the Rook to get active
like at move 7
I guess next few moves were normal
aoi_is_so_boosted: why wouldn't you want that
its basically like playing normally
except
Anirudh_23: but may I ask: what is Be2???
aoi_is_so_boosted: you thinknof random movies
where you cna sac thinfs and all that
Anirudh_23: like to play that with the idea of using light squares
GAME OVER
aoi_is_so_boosted won on time (10 min Rated)
Your new Rapid rating is 2267 (-8).
Was aoi_is_so_boosted a good sport?
TOP GUESSERS OUT OF 1:#1
ehm42(1582)
0/0
ehm42: what?
Anirudh_23: Maybe you are not a cheater
but it is sickening stuff you played
aoi_is_so_boosted: mb
my friend told me to play his acc
Anirudh_23: most people hardly get to paralyse me a little
aoi_is_so_boosted: so i did
Anirudh_23: this is just like engine style paralysis
aoi_is_so_boosted: huh
Anirudh_23: 97.4% acc
aoi_is_so_boosted: how do youknow what the engine plays like
Anirudh_23: they look very similar
Ive played against so many cheaters
they all play the same way
aoi_is_so_boosted: ahh
uh
Anirudh_23: makes me sick
aoi_is_so_boosted: idk abt how the engine plays
Anirudh_23: like all they do is restrict people as much as possible
only thing they will ever do
aoi_is_so_boosted: damn
Anirudh_23: the best part is that is literally how I play chess, but they do it at such a high level
aoi_is_so_boosted: try playing competitive then
Anirudh_23: what is your fide rating
aoi_is_so_boosted: no clue
my friend just gave me access to this acc
Anirudh_23: you have to have a fide rating to play this well
aoi_is_so_boosted: and asked me to play for him
Anirudh_23: do you know what acc you lose games at? 90%
that is not normal at all
aoi_is_so_boosted: oh well
its not my acc anw
Anirudh_23: what is the rating of your real account then
aoi_is_so_boosted: i play chess for fun
uh
Anirudh_23: no youve trained a lot if you crush a person this well
aoi_is_so_boosted: i havent played my real account in 2 years or so
last time was 1700 something
Anirudh_23: alright, what is your OTB rating
aoi_is_so_boosted: you played really good yk
Anirudh_23: I don't care about how I played rn
aoi_is_so_boosted: i dont think i have one
for otb
Anirudh_23: bc there mustve been a way you got so extremely strong
way too strong without playing chess
aoi_is_so_boosted: just play for fun ig?
i play chess too
regularly
just not online
Anirudh_23: you cannot get that strong so easily
aoi_is_so_boosted: it takes time
years
its alg bro
just play more
experience is better than skill
Anirudh_23: ok, have your account for a few days. it will get closed very soon
if you wanna keep it, stop playing with an engine support
aoi_is_so_boosted: but im nott
Anirudh_23: it is really obv you are using one
aoi_is_so_boosted: have it your way then
goodbye now
good game"

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/87035950013?tab=review

Even without seeing the game, you can see how little they understood chess. They still haven't been banned but only because they have played only 22 games and chose to lose 7 of those while getting 90%+ on all the wins (as well as the one win with 76% which happened after this little chat). But even the terrible game they played after raised further suspicions!

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/87038374779?tab=review

This person is almost certainly a cheater and will 99% get banned. They have hardly played any games so will not get banned so quickly, but it is clear how much they are a cheater.

Hope this helps for you to spot cheaters better

You will also notice how reluctant they were to answer some of my questions. Sure, it will torture them, but that is after all what they've done to everyone

Nice topic! maybe add a "conclusion" or "tl;dr" section because most people don't dare to read a lot. This will be helpful if I dare to reach 2000 online.

It is very obvious to spot the cheaters, because the time usage, key moves, etc. I remember once a guy called me a cheater because i beat him badly in caro

Reason I only keep these forums within clubs is because they tend to attract a lot of toxic people for no reason.

whats an otb rating??

but what the difference between otb and fide

anirudh sed something like theres a difference

and i think this guy im playing against is cheating (look at move 20 of this game and see the timings) https://www.chess.com/game/live/87317579729

nvm his accuracy is 63.1

game ended

OTB (Over The Board) will often just mean you are asking for any rating the person has which is not online (e.g their national rating such as ECF, or USCF or their international rating which is the FIDE rating).

FIDE (Federation des echecs internationale) is your international OTB rating. These are super deflated, smallest differences between fide and chess.com rating tend to be 300 (and with chess.com being the higher rating). Cheaters will often not exactly no the correlation between FIDE and OTB, but many people do not have a fide rating. However, almost everyone at 1500+ will have an OTB rating (at least a National Rating).

ye i have no otb or fide rating

btw i play as black he plays as white and for move 20 he takes over 2 minutes and 20 seconds

it is fine to do that. It is only when the move is so blindingly obvious and they play the move using so much time, but also play very difficult moves in much shorter times or in the same time that it gets suspicious (and only really if they spend a super consistent time each move)