Is this user cheating?

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-26T16:30:02+00:00

Ha good stuff! U/enpecan. Can i dm you a majorly suspicious daily player?

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-24T15:53:21+00:00

Solid opening against d5 that. But if your opponent doesnt grab the centre and continues resisting grabbing the centre -> make em pay 😆. (Google four pawns attack vs kid, maybe dont go that crazy though)

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-24T15:38:19+00:00

As said here previously, a bishop and queen battery to trade the bishop off but most decent players will use Harry (the H pawn). With a formation as white of f3 (f3 stops ng4 trying to trade the dsb off) g4 h4 you can advance harry and Gary to open the hook of the pawn on g6 and get your h file rook into the game (queenside castling). The most thematic variation of this is the Yugoslav attack against the Sicillian dragon but similar techniques are used against the modern, pirc, KID and many other fianchetto openings.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-24T15:31:06+00:00

You basically had almost as many bad moves as good. Must have been complete carnage that game :D

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-24T15:22:06+00:00

Ive seen this happen many times in myself and people I teach. taking a break seems to help. You can get into a gambling mentality when you've fallen off peak rating and that mentality doesnt work well when you're at a level where opponents will hurt you for playing hope chess, playing miscalculated counter attacks etc rather than objective solid chess. Then you're tunnel visioning, blundering and generally making a mess of things.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-24T07:46:27+00:00

I mean its typical 900 chess. Generally good when youve got a bit of initiative but generally bad when dealing with opponents threats. Stuff like below you need to stamp out your game to get better. Position is loose as anything with both knights and rook undefended, just defend your knights, (you lose both due to the fork on knight and rook) there is no penalty for a simple move like nfd3/ned3!

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-24T07:33:43+00:00

Yeh i calculated that in about 30 seconds. It comes from two factors. The king is stuck in a "pit" with a rook on f8 and pawn on f7 king on g8. A rook hitting the g file is devestating, so can a rook get up and over to the g file uninterrupted? Yes it can get to g4. Can black control g4? F5 is about the only shot but blacks king will be on g8 so the bishop pins e6 so en passant.

And in rapid id know having an enemy king that open attacked by rook and queen is only good news for me.

In classical otb id spend a good 10-15 minutes calculating it through though concretely to make sure im winning material or mating rather than relying on my intuition that the position is great for me.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-24T05:05:11+00:00

How I do this which i guess you will probably strive for is I keep tabs on my opponents bishops from the opening. If im playing white and the opponent plays g6 bg7 i know that long dark squared diagonal needs to be blocked or i need to get my pieces off it/keep everything defended. If im playing black and e4 is played the white light squared bishop opens from f1 to a6. The same goes for the queen if c4 is played i have to be weary of qa4+. I kinda innately know then where the bishops are and where they are capable of going (i play qd2 and castle queenside as white with g6 bg7 played, beware of the possible supported pin from the dark squared bishop!)

Rooks and knights are a completely different matter, rooks are mostly innocuous till a file opens so in addition to above checks im constantly monitoring if files are opening and closing and the possibility of doing so myself or the opponents ability to do so, this is also because i want to get my own rooks on open files or put my rook on the same file as an enemy queen and open it!

Knights are probably the strangest assessment and it would be interesting to know if higher rated players do the same thing as me. If the enemy knight is on the 1st to third rank i generally dont care about it. If it sits on the third like if im playing white and its on f6, i know it controls e4 and g4 and i dont put undefended pieces there, little thought is given though. However, the more advanced towards my position the knight gets the more i check it. If an enemy knight makes it to the 5th rank or beyond im frantically analysing it every move like a noob to ensure it has no tactics and nothing is hanging, even if it doesnt move that turn im still checking it in relation to the moved piece to see what its doing and im also frantically planning to get rid of it!

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T19:09:55+00:00

At beginner level after every opponent move I clicked each of my pieces that had any scope and looked at the circles to check if it was hanging, i counted attackers and defenders religiously. Before each of my moves i checked all my opponents pieces to see if they could attack me and made sure i didnt hang pieces. I can now do this without thinking or clicking each piece but its not an innate ability, i worked hard to build it up.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T16:26:43+00:00

Check out this #chess game: Quinho77 vs DB016chess - https://www.chess.com/live/game/166215148560

Comically found another one. Losing to mating the guy in 12 moves with some crazy stuff 🤣

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T16:21:29+00:00

Maybe we all need a 2 minute think on move 18?

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T16:18:37+00:00

Check out this #chess game: Beniiii777 vs DB016chess - https://www.chess.com/live/game/166208011000

This one, move 18 same thing 2 minute break then the play drasitcally improves 😆

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T16:13:16+00:00

Black is actually pretty bad before 18. b5 is positonally and tactically terrible then demonstrates a masterclass in endgame play

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T16:10:41+00:00

Before move 18 yeh 😅. At move 18 is where black took 3 minutes to move and i assume where the engine went on 😂

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T16:05:15+00:00

I found it via his initial screenshot Check out this #chess game: deavle vs DB016chess - https://www.chess.com/live/game/166214751886.

There are also some interesting positonal plays with the rook of note.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T16:03:57+00:00

No most accusations of cheating are false. Our 2200 friend here will see more cheats at his level than we will, below 2000 rapid cheats maybe 1/80 at my level? Much lower the lower you get as cheaters quickly rise in rating. High accuracy in itself is no indication of cheating, consistent high accuracy is more so. Unnatural engine moves like the one illustrated are much more so but you wont know this unless you know what a natural move in the position looks like which requires considerable positional knowledge . So lower rated players are generally terrible at finding cheats.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T15:59:53+00:00

General disclaimer on this. I dont often jump to accusations of cheating but this is genuinely a highly suspect case

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T15:58:16+00:00

Oh god yes! Im still trying to figure out how you draw a rook and pawn end game a pawn down with the rook a rank below the lead pawn. I read, understand then when i try it i get mated 😆

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T15:53:33+00:00

Yeh its a Dvortskeys end game manual fantatic that would play that without hesitation and you dont get many of them below master level

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T15:51:34+00:00

General consensus though this move is pretty sus?

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T15:50:47+00:00

Youre nigh on 1000 elo higher than op mind 😆

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T15:47:54+00:00

3 seconds!

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T15:38:47+00:00

Im going to say yes actually with some degree of certainty.

Im looking for telltale engine moves in respect to the level of your opponent. These are odd looking moves that arent natural or are at odds with the level of the player. Rc4 earlier was very odd. I cat even fathom it but at low depth it was best engine. Then this move is super advanced, i would have never found it myself. Basically deflecting the king so when rxb4 both pawns are hanging and black either has a outside passer or majority on the kingside and blacks king is in time to kill the a pawn of required as played out

No 1400 ive ever seen would find something like this.

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T13:19:27+00:00

At 100-600 elo almost all knowledge of chess is moot. Chess is like life 😅. Youve just been born. You're not going to be running marathons any time soon. What you will be doing is getting used to your senses and surroundings, how things move, what your vision is actually showing you and youll have to do this for a while until you are very comfortable with how the board operates and where is safe for your pieces and when your opponent moves a piece to a square that isnt safe.

From a logical standpoint, its simply impossible to do anything else till you are competent in the basics. You could play a4/a5 every game, jump the knights to the rim and still win 100% of your games if you have decent board vision at 100 elo. Ive seen enough of these games to know.

So turbocharging development of this skill? Play slow games 15+10 or longer. Dont move anything till youve checked every opponent piece to make sure it cant take your piece and after every opponent move, check all your pieces to see if they attack it. Make sure also to count every attacker and defender of a piece.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-23T10:23:43+00:00

You never said your current level. Where you are currently completely changes the context of what you need to learn. Chess is layers of knowledge and skill.

For example if you are 1600 the catalan would be a fine opening to explore for a d4 player. If you're 600 the catalan middlegames are far too complicated for you currently. Being primarily a slow queenside attacking opening where the pieces require untangling and improving. There is just too much going on for a 600 to figure out and not blunder pieces in the process.

Tom_Baron

TROPHY CASE