Is studying/taking chess classes 'cheating' when participating in a multi-day game or tournament?

Hello,

While it is obvious that having a friend complete your game or using an engine assist you in the middle of a game is 'cheating' I was wondering if other things would be considered cheating.

For example, what if you are involved in a game with another player with a 3 days per move format, and during that time you study chess, take chess training courses, etc. - would this be considered 'cheating'?

On the other hand, what if you are in a chess tournament and in the middle of one of the games you begin studying the main line of an opening via videos or old-school books?

What if you watch other chess games online that have similar openings/positions while you are playing a regular game?

Not probably an issue in blitz or other rapid game, but for the 15/10 or 30/0 formats it seems to be something you might encounter.

Anyways, what is the community's thoughts on this?

In live chess (like a 30 minute game) it's cheating to, for example, look something up in a book or online.

In "daily" chess you can read and watch videos and all that during a game. That's fine, in fact perhaps even a little expected. I've definitely done stuff like that during daily games.

No one would ever play correspondence games if you had to completely shut down any kind of chess education while you have games going on

I think chess.com covers this explicitly in FAQs e.g. that books are always fine during daily games (unless it's an opening book that's just a pure engine dump i.e. all engine lines).

 Of course. Why would that be bad?

You'll get some generic examples, then try to apply them to the specific position in your game.

Books are fine, and very different from TBs.

In generic positions they'll show a specific sequence, sure.

You'll have to figure out how much of that applies, and in what way, to your specific game position though.

People used to do this in OTB chess too, during the days of adjournments. Players like Fischer and Botvinnik would bring reference books to tournaments for just that reason. Well, of course Russians had teams to do it for them. Fischer would have to stay up all night himself.

https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1444879-fair-play-on-chess-com-what-you-need-to-know

In Daily Chess (turn-based games with several days per move), you may consult any resource which is not engine-based. This includes books, opening databases (including the Chess.com Explorer) for [www.chess.com/openings|opening moves], and thematic games (though not their engine analyses).  

Yeah, it gets a little tricky.

Lets say you play daily games a lot, and always analyse afterwards... so you have in depth engine analysis from a year ago that you happen to remember quite a lot of...

I think the answer is, sure, you can use it, but you're also risking a ban. It's unfortunate, but IMO if you want to play correspondence at a high level there's no escaping engine stuff.

no problem

I don't think a book could give you anything other than the opening line. I think that's ok.

Thank you all for the answers.

Given the fact that there is some gray areas, I think the best course of action for me personally would be to consult my opponent. If my opponent is uncomfortable with me using a non-engine resource in the middle of a game then it would be 'unethical(?)' for me to continue using it assuming my opponent was also willing to similarly restrict himself/herself.

On the other hand, if my opponent did not feel threatened or otherwise take issue with it, then I suppose it wouldn't really matter what chess.com thinks at all, as my opponent would consent and chess.com would have no effective way to prevent me or my opponent from consulting/continuing training in such situations.

My question is: If in daily I reach a position that I have made a thread about, can I check my thread?

Hi friend. Thanks so much for your contributions to chess.coms forums. I enjoy all the threads you make. This one is one of my favorites keep up the great work!! Not sure why you deleted your original post though.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/general-i-won-400-elo-points-in-20-days

Hi friend!

I like reporting you becouse I exposed and you and you have been salty since. That post have absolute no sense since that guy was game picking, only 10 min games where I played exceptionally well. The guy was as pathetic as you!

I love this thread where you exposed yourself!

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/i-am-the-worst-2000-rated-player-of-all-time

I like my worst 2000 rated player thread of all time too!! Although it’s not as interesting as I expected. I was expecting more creative comments from our fellow chess.com members but oh well. 

Nice try, but there’s no reason to be so humble. They weren’t 10 minute games,  I looked it up they were all 3 minute games which makes me even more impressed with your unbelievably brilliant play. I would create threads bragging about my massive rating increases in such a short period of time too if I could play as brilliantly as you did in most of these games. 

Why you delete your original post in that thread though? If I could play as brilliantly as you did I wouldn’t try to hide I would be bragging to everyone about how brilliant I suddenly became overnight

I’ve missed you friend. 

Why you insult me friend? We’re such good friends why would you call me pathetic? That hurts my feelings friend. It’s ok though we’ll get through this since we’re such good friends

Stupid as always. I remember those were 10 min as I played 2 10 game against testa cuz we were trying the wayward. Even if they were 3 min, what is your point? I even had 1-2 100% best move games, does it mean I'm cheating? If I'm cheating why I lost elo points since?

Listen up, you got exposed, deal with it... you can try whatever to make it seems like i do too. You deleted all the comments where people called you cheater in your profile... what are you afraid of? I never deleted any, I just tried to delete that thread becouse at that time I actually belived that someone could even fell for it and get me in trouble.

You are getting reported again becouse it's not allowed to blame someone for cheating. You don't have any argument or proof, do you really wanna get into this? It's very easy to proof that you cheat so trust me, you don't want to.

Friend why you keep saying such mean things?

 I have never deleted any comments on my profile that is why there are so any rude comments on there. Furthermore no one has ever accused me of being a cheater on my profile or anywhere else because my play could never be confused with the play of an engine. As such you and anyone else are free to post any of my 17000 games.

I have no idea why that guy accused you of using an engine. That’s not the reason why that’s my favorite thread. The reason it’s  my favorite thread is because it shows how  my good friend Alltheusernamestaken gained 400 elo points in less than three weeks!!!!! What really impressed me about it is how you deleted your original post as soon as those mean bullies accused you of being an engine user and posted all of the brilliant games you clearly played yourself. It just shows how humble you are. You know you’re every bit as good as stockfish is, but you didn’t want all of chess.com to know that so you tried to hide it. Fortunately though your OP had already been quote. Incredible humbleness by you!  

All im doin his congratulating my brilliant friend on his brilliant wins