How to win against engine cheaters!

Engine cheaters usually have a delay in making moves, so longer the game better your chances of winning. So I’ll tell the secrets of prolonging the game in this post.

But the first problem is that you may don’t notice that you face a cheater at start and you may start with a sharp opening, then certainly you will lose as you have no chance against an engine and engine will demolish you in few moves.

So the first problem is to spot a cheater as soon as possible.

You can spot stupid cheaters (not clever ones) in their second or third move: they think for an opening move in a blitz game while they should know it by heart. So, in this case, check their user profile, if the difference between blitz and bullet is high or if they are only active in longer time controls (zero bullet for example), then there is a good chance you face a cheater. Then we enter the second phase: making the game as long as possible.

In this phase you should make game as long as possible, here I explain how to make game longer:

0. keep in mind in a game you will lose, so you should not play a real chess.

1. Forget all your amazing attacking ideas, all of then will fail quickly even against weakest engines.

2. King safety first:
don’t hesitate to give up a pawn or two to ensure your king safety as soon as possible. If the king is safe then it takes longer time for them to demolish you, so you can win on time.

3. Avoid complex positions:
If a position is getting complicated, in a short time you have no chance to calculate anything, simplifying the position is the key. To prevent complex positions, when you see there are 3 or more attacking pieces of your opponent pressing you, exchange some pieces before they reach harmony. Exchange by all cost, even if you have to give up a rook for a knight.


4. offer queen exchange:

your queen is half powerful as engines queen, so if you exchange them then it is extra point for you.

5. offer knight exchange. Try to win engines knights and exchange it with some of your pieces. Knights maneuvers are hard to detect in advance, you have zero chance to spot it 5 move in advance (if you are not GM or IM, for them I have no idea). Just exchange them.

6. Keep a rook and one of the bishops in the game:

Rooks and bishops are easy to follow and they can easily make useless moves, e.g. attack to a pawn from distance, force the opponent to defend it and pause their plan. Or similarly make useless checks, just to longer the game.

7. Don’t exchange all the pieces:

Pawn endgames are easy win by engine, avoid it.

8. Time scramble:

if you manage hold your game until your opponent has 20 seconds or less, then you have a good chance to win in the game, but a simple strategy is to flag the opponent.

9. sometimes write something in chat:

Even nonsense, if they read it then they may forget the engine move and have to look at it again, costing more time. Obviously you shouldn’t write too much as you also lose time.

10. Always report them no matter you won or lost, report them, even though chess.com is lazy on this.


If you have any other ideas, share it below.

Best luck!

Not a single word said is true. Entirely based in conjecture and invalid assumptions. 

@StormCentre3,

With which part are you disagree? How to spot a cheater or how to play with a cheater? I have no claim about accuracy of the first part after 2-3 moves, as I said there is a good chance you face a cheater. But the second part is really working and if you have found factual error in it, let me know. I used them quite often and of course I learned it experimentally. As you can see I’m a good experienced players and trustable in this case.