Author: Albert Silver
Date: 09:19:51 07/08/99
Go up one level in this thread
On July 08, 1999 at 09:57:59, Steve Lopez wrote:
>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
Yes, poor sportsmanship seems to be on the rise. Still, I tend to ignore it. If
you let it get to you, then you're letting someone else spoil your fun, and I
try not to let anyone have that power over me. If they disconnect I smile as in
my book that is the equivalent of having your opponent sweep the pieces to the
floor instead of resigning. If they start to accuse me of cheating with a
computer, I sometimes reply: "Hello from Albert 1.01 beta!". Sometimes I get the
latest which is to play until they become irreversibly lost and then they stop
playing. I always give my opponent the benefit of the doubt and after a minute
will ask if there is a problem. If I get no reply (they sometimes censor me
first but one can easily get around this by sending one's messages through a
'kibitz'. The people who do this usually forget to disable seeing 'kibs'), or my
opponent starts to taunt me, I just resign. I try not to waste time arguing with
such fools.
Albert Silver
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