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I play a lot on ICC, and I notice they offer a few days of rated blitz and other time controls.

I'd like to play more rated games, however I'm afraid of how easy it is to cheat online. It seems like there is nothing stopping someone from having a laptop with them and making moves by running the game through stockfish. They could screw up just enough to evade "bot behavior" detection.

Are these types of games worth playing at all? Or should I just stick to going to the club once a week for classic games?

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    Could someone explain why I'm getting downvoted. Is this not a good question? Are people offended at something? I can't write better questions if no one explains what I'm doing wrong...
    – user14142
    Dec 19, 2017 at 2:45
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    I didn't vote either way, but my guess is that some people thought the question too subjective and having no clear answer.
    – itub
    Dec 19, 2017 at 15:58
  • @user14142 You got like 1 downovte!
    – David
    Jul 8, 2019 at 13:40
  • but why? people deserve to know why they get downvoted. especially the newer ones under a few thousand points.
    – yobamamama
    Dec 30, 2019 at 1:03
  • only you can answer that. everybody has their own opinion whether something is worth doing or not. the question should have been killed early by the thought police for being opinion based not facts.
    – edwina oliver
    Jan 31, 2020 at 21:02

1 Answer 1

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First of all, the vast majority of people are not cheating. If they were, 1200 would be a master rating, and it's not.

Second, in a USCF rated game, you're not anonymous. The games are connected to your real name and your USCF membership. There might be some people willing to cheat anonymously who would be less willing if it could be traced back to them personally, and possibly put their offline membership at risk, rather than simply forcing them to make a new online account.

Third... yes, some people cheat. If you do play against Stockfish (with or without added mistakes) once or twice, so what? It won't be most of the time.

Fourth, if you're worried about cheaters affecting your rating, it appears that online play currently only affects your USCF "Blitz" rating, not your "Regular" USCF rating.

In summary: If you think it would otherwise be a good idea, there's no reason to let the prospect of cheaters dissuade you. (Although skipping club to play online would just be silly in most cases.)

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  • Who cares about USCF rating anyway? You are aware of the fact that there is also real rating, right?
    – David
    Jul 8, 2019 at 13:41
  • @David By "real" I assume you mean FIDE? How many FIDE rated tournaments do you think were within 100 miles of me in the last 5 years? And the question was about USCF anyway.
    – D M
    Jul 8, 2019 at 21:02
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    I am not a citizen of neither Myammar nor Liberia, so I don't know what a "mile" is, but in Spain there is a FIDE-valid tournament on each province pretty much every single week
    – David
    Jul 8, 2019 at 21:07
  • 100 miles is about 160 kilometers. And in the US, we certainly don't have a FIDE tournament every week in every state. On the FIDE website, I see 6 tournaments in the entire US for the month of July, and only 5 for August. The nearest one is over 200 km from me. (And how can you forget Grenada?)
    – D M
    Jul 8, 2019 at 22:28
  • some people cheat and that is too many but it is not the majority.
    – edwina oliver
    Jan 31, 2020 at 21:03

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