What's the best way to deal with false cheating accusations?

A couple of times my opponent has accused me of cheating after losing. Often this happens after my opponent misses a tactic.

I am trying to find the best way to react to that kind of accusations. I have thought of a few ways:

1) Just ignore them

2) Try to have a conversation with them

3) Report them

Can you come up with a better way to deal with such false accusations?

I quite like being called a cheat, no kidding, esp from a higher rated player. Take it as a compliment of the highest order old bean! They think they were so good that only a cheater could beat them. Its equal to punching the school bully in the face.

Tell them to eff off and go get a life.

Be sympathetic. I catch one cheat a day. I've definitely accused the wrong people and apologize via a polite conversation. My advice then is to think about context. There's cheaters here. If you win in a tricky way against a similarly skilled opponent (like a bot would) then be happy 1. you didn't cheat to do it and 2. that the person probably is frustrated because they're catching one cheater every day they play (which creates an atmosphere of paranoia and awfulness). Be sympathetic. Be human. Try to understand where they're coming from and maybe you'll make a friend.

I don't think there's any need to be sympathetic, tbh. If there are red flags, then sure, but a lot of people accuse cheating because they can't accept that they played badly, or that they can lose.
One brilliant tactic isn't enough to justify accusing cheating. On the other hand, I've played stockfish users and that is on another level. plus, i don't think people who accuse cheating (in an invalid way) are very friendly in general. maybe you are an exception, but this is my general experience. i was once accused cheating by a bullet player who is like 2000, i responded in a friendly manner explaining why i played as i did, but i was ignored and blocked anyway. the several other instances i can remember that i was accused cheating, the opponent wasn't friendly either
and btw, i have played quite some cheaters as well. it's frustrating, yes. but i only accuse others of cheating when i feel that i have a solid base of evidence, and i've seen many people i've reported banned

4) Thank them.

It's a compliment. They are telling you that you played so much better than they did that they feel you must have had engine assistance.

Unfounded accusations might be annoying, but that is the only damage that they can do to you. The cheat detection team uses objective criteria for deciding whether or not a player is cheating. False accusations can't hurt you.

I can relate to this post. I am a relatively new player, so I have improved significantly in just a few months. When I defeated a 1350 rated player a couple of weeks ago, he accused me of cheating, because he couldn't possible lose to a beginner. As someone here suggests, I saw that as a compliment. I reported him for foul language in the chat, not for the accusation.

Aha, I don't know how much of a compliment it is necessarily. Sure we sometimes luckily play above our level. But I feel like people also accuse people who are playing at their level while they are underperforming, but they want to shift the blame. Idk, probably I'm just overly annoyed with this personally.

It's completely meaningless, just ignore them.

There is something I think is happening in arena's ... To me it looks like good players 1500 + are creating new accounts, and then joining an arena with a low elo rating, and then crushing everyone, because they are getting matched against 400-600 rated players, and wiping them out in 15 moves.

Not cheating as such, but disingenuous maybe?

Perhaps there should be a "minimum games played" requirement in order to qualify for a prize?

What I usually say is something like, "i won't say anything. we're in the free world. freedom of speech."

It may not be cheating with an engine, but it is still violating the fair play policy and can get them banned if caught

I have similar experiences. I have tried, but there is no point trying to explain anything. Once someone makes up their mind, they won't listen to rational or logical arguments. Anything you say just becomes "cheater trying to explain their way out of it".

Yeah so....maybe just ignore?

though it's true that cheaters come up with funny explanations too lol.
....but yeah, i think a lot of these people aren't really making a rational case lol. i can only think of ONE cheating accusation i have received that i think was reasonable. it was one of those rare odd times when an experimental idea i had in an unrated game worked. most of the times, it ends up in a flaming mess

Another point is that the ability to detect cheating probably correlates with the playing strength to some degree. It's the Dunning-Kruger effect in action (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect). A person who is not very good at chess cannot detect skill that is way above their ability, because it's the very same skill they are lacking. So for example, a mid-level tactic can look like a computer move to them, because they wouldn't be able to find it. But for a 1800 -rated player that's basic stuff.
Of course, it's rare that people with different skill levels play against each other, so this doesn't happen often. But it is possible that two persons in the same rating range have asymmetric strengths. So for example one player has just trained certain types of tactics, and the other one hasn't. Then, when an opportunity arises in the game, the trained player finds the tactic, but the other one doesn't. And if the untrained person is in a certain state of mind, a cheating accusation is possible.

Back in the old days before computers even existed, it wasn't possible to accuse your opponent of using an engine. So people had to come up with other excuses for their defeats.

There was never a shortage of excuses. Mostly medical.

"I had a headache". "I had a toothache". "My stomach was upset".

Tartakower once remarked that he had never beaten a healthy man.

LOL

Tell them you will take the accusation as a compliment for your good play.