Answers.Body: <p>As Brian said, this is a matter of opinion mostly. But this situation comes up in chess fairly often, so I think it's an on-topic question that can at least be given an attempted answer.<br />
  Firstly, half of one game isn't enough to really tell. Players at all levels are able to play computer precise moves if the position is one that they easily understand. 37 moves straight of perfect stockfish moves is certainly suspicious, but you should be certain before you go accusing a friend.<br />
  Secondly, the chess.com estimated elo is mostly nonsense. Don't assign too much weight to it.<br />
  Thirdly, is it worth the accusation? I routinely play chess.com correspondence (daily) with a friend that I know cheats. I lose all the time, but who really cares about their daily rating? They don't gain anything, and you gain experience facing the most testing lines against your ideas.</p>
  <p>The maturity of yourself and your opponent matters here. If they're cheating in zero-stakes correspondence chess, then they obviously don't care too much about chess as a serious endeavor. If you stop playing them, they'll just move on to the next thing, no more cheating, and the friendship remains.</p>
  <p>Lastly, confronting a friend over something like this can be uncomfortable, especially if you're even a little uncertain about whether they <em>actually</em> cheated. Thats why you can <em><strong>report them anonymously</strong></em> on chess.com. Let Danny Rensch and company do your dirty work   :)</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2024-09-16T16:24:11.750Z
Answers.Text: +1 We have to be able to give some guidance for this very real situation. Brian confuses judgment with opinion yet again
Answers.UserDisplayName: Laska
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Answers.CreationDate: 2024-09-16T15:44:41.683Z
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Awalrod
Body: <p>Played a 900 ELO friend on chess.com with no time limit, and was doing very well in the first half.  However from move 40 to his win on 73, he played perfectly by stockfish suggestions, and was given an estimated skill level of 1500.</p>
  <p>At what point do you pass from judging your opponent as suspiciously good to an obvious cheat?  Are there online tools that can detect this sort of thing more deeply than manually flipping through moves?  Maybe they just had a really good mid to end game?</p>
  <p>Don't mean to be salty... but this person has been known to cheat in other games.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-09-13T09:50:25.457Z
Comments.Text: There is no right or wrong answer to this. It is a matter of opinion. Those types of questions are not allowed here.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Brian Towers
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-09-13T12:05:34.660Z
Comments.Text: Estimated skill level is pretty much meaningless. There's no way to call without watching the actual game
Comments.UserDisplayName: David
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-09-13T12:06:11.210Z
Comments.Text: @BrianTowers there are actually objective criteria to go about cheat detection. In fact FIDE has a body of professionals dedicated to this task.
Comments.UserDisplayName: David
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-09-13T14:53:26.420Z
Comments.Text: Not suggesting that this question is a dupe, but could [this](https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/27043/how-could-one-cheat-on-lichess?rq=1) question possibly help you?
Comments.UserDisplayName: CrSb0001
Tags: <elo><cheating>
Title: When to call out a cheat?
ThreadText: # When to call out a cheat?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2024-09-13)
  
  Played a 900 ELO friend on chess.com with no time limit, and was doing very well in the first half. However from move 40 to his win on 73, he played perfectly by stockfish suggestions, and was given an estimated skill level of 1500.
  
  At what point do you pass from judging your opponent as suspiciously good to an obvious cheat? Are there online tools that can detect this sort of thing more deeply than manually flipping through moves? Maybe they just had a really good mid to end game?
  
  Don't mean to be salty... but this person has been known to cheat in other games.
  
  **Tags:** elo, cheating
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: There is no right or wrong answer to this. It is a matter of opinion. Those types of questions are not allowed here.  
  > **username_2**: Estimated skill level is pretty much meaningless. There's no way to call without watching the actual game  
  > **username_2**: @BrianTowers there are actually objective criteria to go about cheat detection. In fact FIDE has a body of professionals dedicated to this task.  
  > **username_3**: Not suggesting that this question is a dupe, but could [this](https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/27043/how-could-one-cheat-on-lichess?rq=1) question possibly help you?  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2024-09-16. Score: 4
  
  As Brian said, this is a matter of opinion mostly. But this situation comes up in chess fairly often, so I think it's an on-topic question that can at least be given an attempted answer.  
  Firstly, half of one game isn't enough to really tell. Players at all levels are able to play computer precise moves if the position is one that they easily understand. 37 moves straight of perfect stockfish moves is certainly suspicious, but you should be certain before you go accusing a friend.  
  Secondly, the chess.com estimated elo is mostly nonsense. Don't assign too much weight to it.  
  Thirdly, is it worth the accusation? I routinely play chess.com correspondence (daily) with a friend that I know cheats. I lose all the time, but who really cares about their daily rating? They don't gain anything, and you gain experience facing the most testing lines against your ideas.
  
  The maturity of yourself and your opponent matters here. If they're cheating in zero-stakes correspondence chess, then they obviously don't care too much about chess as a serious endeavor. If you stop playing them, they'll just move on to the next thing, no more cheating, and the friendship remains.
  
  Lastly, confronting a friend over something like this can be uncomfortable, especially if you're even a little uncertain about whether they *actually* cheated. Thats why you can ***report them anonymously*** on chess.com. Let Danny Rensch and company do your dirty work :)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_5**: +1 We have to be able to give some guidance for this very real situation. Brian confuses judgment with opinion yet again  
  
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