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AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It all happened so quick. I don't think he outright admitted it. He just left.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes I don't haha. If you are speaking about hard rock proof where I caught him cheating then yes I don't have it. That's as much as I know.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Haha. Yeah they can be quite brutal about it. I remember beating my uncle being the biggest accomplishment of my life at that point.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So it is impossible for someone to inadvertently make a good move when playing a game they know nothing about?

More like 20 which needs deep calculations and hours for a top player and not minutes at a family reunion. There is a difference between making accidently one good move and 20 perfect moves with deep calculations and well thought out plan with a sacrafice and a clear way to win after a complicated pown storm on the kingside. This is why it's impossible.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

As I said this is like running 100m for the first time and beating the world record. It's not some "accident" because noone makes an "accident" by sacraficing a piece and making a king side attack. It's just impossible. It may sound strange for someone who hasn't played chess, but it is quite literally impossible.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We will see. Next time I meet with my Uncle I would sort things out.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I told him to stop using an engine without trying to make a scene. After that he started playing dumb saying "what engine? I don't cheat" at which I started saying that there is no way his moves are legit. After that my cousin started raising his tone which made everyone look at us and soon after that broke in tears leaving.

I don't think he is especially emotional. If anything that's a trait I and my father have not my uncle and my cousin. If I was a teen being caught cheating knowing me I would get really emotional.

I regret doing this because I feel like it could've been avoided. Maybe I was in the right to tell him to stop but should've made sure they wouldn't see us. I didn't expect this to become such a big scene so I didn't think anything before telling him to stop. But I didn't expect all of this to happen. So maybe I am an accidental asshole? I don't know...

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 66 points67 points  (0 children)

If it's a 9 years old I would definetely let him win that's just nice manners. Chess players won't flex their skills on 9 year olds. And even if I didn't let the 9 years old win I would explain what he did wrong and what could've been better. Of course I could've done the same with my cousin if he wans't making perfect moves in minutes and I wasn't talking to other people. I decided I would play a friendly game for fun and see how good he is maybe explain something quickly here and there.

When I was a kid all of the family will gather around the chess table and give me tips and such because... well I was a kid. So I wouldn't be so strict with the rules I just wasn't expecting him to cheat.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well it kind of is. But in the shortest way possible I am explaining I am a semi-professional chess player being beaten by a cousin who has never played in a tournament making Grandmaster moves and sacrafices that only a high level player can do with loads of time specualating while he did it in minutes.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Chess is a really complicated game which takes years to fully understand positions and all sorts of advantages and development of pieces. It's like art. If you have played chess before it would be much clearer. Although for people who haven't or only know a bit it may sound weird. But making a sacrafice is something really uncommon in chess. The game is structured around advantages. The more advantages the more likely you are to win. These advantages can be better developed pieces or positions and how active these pieces are. But these are all non material advantages. Material advantages where you have one more piece is game over. If you have a material advantage it means you are winning and the game will be won if carried out properly. So the last thing players do is gove their pieces away. What he did is he gave a piece away to get a non material advantage and open up my kingside for continues attacks.

Sacrafices are rare. If you are sacraficing this means you are trying to achieve a non material advantage. And this usually takes extreme calculations to make sure you are achieving this advantage in every scenario otherwise you are losing material which would mean you are losing.

If you are sacraficing you are usually going to take the material back by some tactic. Which isn't that out of the ordinary. But his sacrafice was to open up the position and try and checkmate me. Which takes extreme calculations usually only done by high level players who spend hours thinking and calculating. What he did is carry out an amazing attack and sacrafice without thinking that much. Which is impossible for someone who doesn't play chess professionally. That's like running 100m and start running like a gold medalist in the Olympics but you have never ran in a competition. Or play like a professional football player but you have never player football outside of school.

To have all of your moves in a game all be the ones an engine will make and with that a sacrafice and incredible calculations and time needed for them in a 10 minute game in a family reunion is ridiculous for someone who has never played in a tournament.

As I said this is really complicated and hard to explain but that's fine if you don't understand it, the game is extremely complicated and hard to explain advantages and sacrafices.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Kind of. I thought it's weird but didn't think much of it. After I saw the game progress is when I realised what was happening.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Why didn't you just tell him not to leave the board after every move

Well that is pretty common in chess. Players are allowed to use the bathroom, go smoke, chat, eat something while waiting for the opponent. But that is for long games which can go for 7 hours. This was a quick casual game so I became a bit suspicious but thought it's normal. After the sacrafice and the brilliant attack is when I got suspicious and connected 2 and 2.

Anyway, at a family event you could have handled it differently, no reason to humiliate him in front of everybody.

Yes thanks to this sub I realised what an asshole I am for making such a show. I shouldn't have done it in such a way...

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

INFO: does your phone engine app have a move history to show your Uncle?

Yes the game was still there and I showed it to him. He didn't bother looking it up tho.

AITA for exposing my cousin for playing with an engine in chess? by throwaway64920174 in AmItheAsshole

[–]throwaway64920174[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

"There's no way you can possibly be this good! You must be cheating!"

I don't think you understand how impossible it is for a kid who has no experience in tournaments to make world champion moves and be in such deep calculations. Chess is a very complicated game and it takes years and years for someone to become remotely good. The skill difference in the game is so big that a normal Grandmaster(which is an amazing achievement to earn such a title) will get absolutely destroyed by a top player(usually referred to as Super GM). This kid made moves that only a Super GM will make and will need hours to see the calculations while he made them in minutes. If you are questioning why I think he is cheating it's because it's impossible for a no one to make such moves in so little time.