🚀 go-pugleaf

Ertosi <deadwood1@home.com> wrote in article
<H%085.8996$661.1871593@news1.rdc1.va.home.com>...

> I have been thinking of joining ICC because I haven't been able to make
it
> to the chess club lately for face to face games. So, how bad is this
> cheating problem. I would hope to be playing against humans.

Not so bad really. 

My guess is that on ICC in at least 90% of the games you will be playing
humans. Occasionally an opponent who has lost a few games in a row will
fire up Fritz in the background and start playing better. And occasionally
you will meet a player 2500+ who in reality is a computer. If you noplay
your suspects after a few games, you will after some time meet very few
computer cheaters and still have plenty of strong opponents.

On FICS I suspect a higher percentage of the stronger players (2100+) is
computer assisted. It could be that as much as one third of the players in
this group are cheaters. But you really need only 5-10 regular opponents on
your own level to have a varied menu of openings and playing styles.

You should in my opinion be suspicious if a player is more than 500 points
higher rated in blitz than in bullet/lightning or is very eager to pick up
material even if you are starting a king's attack. You should also be
suspicious if he in bullet/lightning: 
a) plays the first 10 moves or so without using any time at all
b) is distributing his time very evenly, moving very fast even in
complicated positions
c) is starting to play incredibly fast under time pressure

I have rather rarely met opponents like this on ICC and not too often on
FICS either. But I met a lot of them when I tried Playsite and a few other
'amateur' playing sites a year ago and I believe I can spot them after a
couple of games if they are not very clever.

Sverre Johnsen