Underrated or cheating 1100-1400 players

Why do we have so many strong players in the 1100 to 1400 range? Are they cheating? Maybe I'm overestimating my skills.

Could someone check this game where I lost whether my 1100 opponent is playing stronger than his rating please. Although I don't study openings or tactics I believe I have good overall chess skills.

This is the link to my game: [Link removed - please do not make public accusations. - MOD]

Sorry I can't insert my game using firefox. Thank you.

 Now compare that game with this one I just won against a 1400+ player.

https://www.chess.com/live/game/3076210518

I feel that the 1100 player is "stronger".

This 1200 player feels just about right. Not cheating? https://www.chess.com/live/game/3076574635

A proper 1300 player https://www.chess.com/live/game/3076600115

 This forum will be locked soon.. ive been sitting between 1050-1200 for the past 6-12 months. I have played one 'perfect game' 21 excellent moves my opponent probably blundered and made it easy for me. My last blitz game my opponent played 12 excellent moves (as white). I played 9 excellent moves 1 mistake and 1 blunder. Thats just the way it rolls sometimes. I chose the mistake because i couldnt see any options to free up space. Then blundered and checkmate job done

I don't think that players in the 1400 range are weaker then those in the 1200 range. Of course if you compare a good gale by one and a bad game by the other the 1400 will be weaker but on average a 1400 beats a 1200 rated player.

Although the player you commented about the first time does seem suspicious. A 0,03 centipawn loss is extermely good and isn't the only under 0,1 centipawn loss. Also he lost 4 games in a row in under 3 moves (3,1,0,0). You should report him. The forum isn't a place to name and shame (I would argue I haven't, no ratings or specifics are given (so if the first comment is changed to not have details then it's impossible to know who I'm talking about) and I just pointed out stats, no accusations).

Also, in before the lock

So I'm not allowed to post my games?

First one is a cheater.

1) Time spent on each move. Often it takes approx 4-5 seconds for a cheater to plug the move in the engine, look the answer and put it on the real board. This guy uses almost exactly same amount of time for every move in every situation. People playing without an engine have to sometimes take a bit longer time to think in a complex positions and in other hand make instant moves on obvious recaptures. Cheaters take 5 seconds on both moves.

2) Accuracy. I'm not saying 34 excellent moves, and 3 good moves (with 0.03 avg. centipawn loss) in a 37 move game is impossible, but for a 1100 rated player with 300 tactics rating - yeah, no. 

Regardless, unfortunately discussion about cheating (even if it's a real problem sometimes) is not allowed on the public forum, so you're most likely going to get this thread locked. What I would do if I were you is to check those two criteria (accuracy of moves and the time spent playing each move) every time you suspect the opponent of using an engine assistance. Then just report the player, forget about it and be done with it. That is the sad nature of online chess, but cheaters will always exist. If you get outplayed by an engine, take it as a learning lesson. Sometimes you even get some points refunded, when the admins catch someone cheating.

Luckily the amount of times I have suspected my opponent of cheating has been probably less than 5% of all the games I have played, and I have reported only maybe one or two percent of them after an engine analysis. 

As long as you keep improving your own play, your ratings will keep rising in the long run, regardless of the occasional cheater that steals points from you. But also remember that since your blitz rating is ~ 1300 after 300 games, you can fairly safely assume that it's pretty close to your real playing strength. So you should be expecting to win about 50% of games played against 1200-1400 rated opponents at your current level. If you think you should be winning more, you are probably overestimating your playing strength. Good thing about playing strength - however - is that it's something you can always improve. Good luck!

Thanks a lot for the replies and apologies for my forum rules ignorance.

And you are a young girl with a nice rack. Case closed indeed.

You are just dont accuse anyone of cheating when you do..

Thanks ill be keeping a closer eye on the timing of my opponent's in future 

Chess.com gave me 8 points back recently i have never thought an opponent was cheating. 

Posts above are good points.  Game played looks like cheating with almost all perfect moves.  But another explanation is the guy is a very  good player who has only been a member for 4 days.  Everyone starts with the same rating and it takes some time and games for a player to move up or down to his appropriate rating.  

I quit playing rapid, and online chess in general, because of the sheer amount of cheaters here and how nothing is done about it. And the idea that lower rated players don't cheat is outrageous. People cheat to achieve a certain rating. If that rating they want to achieve is 1300, then they'll cheat enough to attain that rating. But they are smart enough to know that if they use an engine for 100% of the moves, then they'll be caught.

In my most recent rapid loss, I was up +3 against a mid 1500s. I can only imagine what was going through his head...I can't lose to this 1300 (opens up tablet). From move 12 to the end of the game he made the #1 engine-recommended moves. Many of these moves contradicted common chess logic, such as trading down material and doubling pawns. Playing some really bizarre moves (g5) to me that came back 10+ moves later to be really strong.

And I know tactics aren't 100% of chess, but when he has a tactics trainer rating of 1000, that means he is 50/50 with simple checkmates, forks, skewers, etc. How can he make these incredible positional and tactical moves but can't do the simple ones when timed.

I don't know. It was really frustrating to me. At times, I would go on tilt because I knew for a fact that my opponent had cheated and I knew nothing would be done about it. I would then lose several games because I had lost my mind.

On a side note, any time I play a 1300-1400 who wasn't cheating in rapid (30 minute 0 increment), I find the talent discrepancy to be very large. And at times, I feel like they may think that I was a sandbagger myself because I am probably a 1500-1700 rapid player with a current rapid rating of ~1400.

This is not true anymore. When you open up a new chess.com account, the account opening sequence will prompt you with a question asking your chess experience. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master. I chose Advanced and my rating was put at 1400 for rapid and 1000 for tactics (I think intermediate you start at 1200 rating, beginner at 1000). If you put beginner, I know your tactics rating starts at 400. Which also leads me to suspect many players who mark themselves as "beginner" but are almost immediately playing at a master level.

 agreed 1 million times ! Smart logic! 

I'm rated somewhere around 1230 right now and I have read a couple of threads about cheaters in this rating range.  But I almost always analyze my games and with over 100 games I feel comfortable to say that when I lost it was because I made stupid moves, and in almost every game my opponent makes stupid moves that sometimes I see, and other times I don't.  I have never had a game where the analysis shows very high percentage of excellent moves, with no mistakes etc.  

Of course I believe that there are cheaters out there, but I don't think its that common.  And if I run across a cheater, I will probably know it after the analysis.  All that is lost is one game.  I'm not worried about it.