Author: Steve Lopez
Date: 06:57:59 07/08/99
Go up one level in this thread
On July 05, 1999 at 22:12:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>So now we have to resort to implying that the GM is possibly cheating,
>even with someone (impartial) looking over his shoulder?
>
>And you wonder why a GM is reluctant to get involved with playing computers?
>They either lose or get accused of cheating? How exactly do they win?
*No one* "wins" anymore. If you win a game in postal chess or in on-line chess,
the first thing your opponent does is accuse you of being a computer cheat. Such
accusations are all the rage these days. Back in Lasker's day, when players lost
they blamed it on themselves ("I have a cold", "My wife's a nag", "I'm tired
from the trip to the tournament"). These days (with less chess being played
face-to-face) when players lose, they blame it on the opponent's proclivity for
cheating ("You're using a computer!" "You have a master there helping you!"
etc.).
I'm just an average player and you can look at *any* of my on-line and postal
games and see that no playing engine was consulted. There are a *lot* of on-line
players (especially on the Java servers) who are just plain *bad* at chess (one
doesn't need a computer to beat them); interestingly, these are the guys who
usually scream loudest about their opponents being "cheaters". I never used to
reply to those folks. These days, though, when I crush some player in ten moves
because he left his King undefended and he follows up by screaming "Computer
cheat!", I simply reply: "What's more likely is that you just suck".
However, the constant screams of "cheater" are certainly taking a lot of the fun
out of on-line chess. It's a similar situation to the one being discussed here:
either you lose or you're a cheater. This is why I spend most of my time playing
against computers off-line -- I'm having a hard time developing a taste for all
of these sour grapes lately.
-- Steve Lopez
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