Board Game Arena

How do I report cheating in chess on boardgamearena?

A recent opponent of mine played very fast and very well. I checked our game against a chess engine and they played perfectly (8 centipawn loss). I have checked several of their other games with similar findings. I suspect they are likely cheating with a chess computer in their games, and I think boardgamearena should investigate further.

However, cheating is not an option for reporting players, and I have searched the forum for cheating, and found nothing helpful. So far, I have only given red thumb with note.

Is there some way I can report them, or at least notify the staff at boardgamearena?

Daniel Bexhill wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 19:12 How do I report cheating in chess on boardgamearena?

A recent opponent of mine played very fast and very well. I checked our game against a chess engine and they played perfectly (8 centipawn loss). I have checked several of their other games with similar findings. I suspect they are likely cheating with a chess computer in their games, and I think boardgamearena should investigate further.

However, cheating is not an option for reporting players, and I have searched the forum for cheating, and found nothing helpful. So far, I have only given red thumb with note.

Is there some way I can report them, or at least notify the staff at boardgamearena?

You can contact them from the "contact" in the bottom of any main pages. And told about this.

Daniel Bexhill wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 19:12 Is there some way I can report them, or at least notify the staff at boardgamearena?

No, since using an engine is not against the Terms of Service. All you can do is give a public red thumb.

If you want serious chess, I'm afraid it can only be found elsewhere.

AI tools seem not uncommon here:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 88&t=19284

KongKing123 wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 20:18

Daniel Bexhill wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 19:12 Is there some way I can report them, or at least notify the staff at boardgamearena?

No, since using an engine is not against the Terms of Service. All you can do is give a public red thumb.

If you want serious chess, I'm afraid it can only be found elsewhere.

Hum, If i remember, There is somewhere explaining any outside things that could helped the player is against BGA rules, so making your point invalid.

KongKing123 wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 20:18

Daniel Bexhill wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 19:12 Is there some way I can report them, or at least notify the staff at boardgamearena?

No, since using an engine is not against the Terms of Service. All you can do is give a public red thumb.

If you want serious chess, I'm afraid it can only be found elsewhere.

https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewt ... &start=100

This says it is indeed forbidden.

Your point still stands though, for serious chess this site sure isn't it

TheClaudeQc wrote: ↑01 June 2021, 02:17 Hum, If i remember, There is somewhere explaining any outside things that could helped the player is against BGA rules, so making your point invalid.

Your post is invalid unless you manage to find a statement that explicitly prohibits this. "I think I remember this being mentioned somewhere" doesn't count.

qwertasdfg wrote: ↑01 June 2021, 10:02

KongKing123 wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 20:18

Daniel Bexhill wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 19:12 Is there some way I can report them, or at least notify the staff at boardgamearena?

No, since using an engine is not against the Terms of Service. All you can do is give a public red thumb.

If you want serious chess, I'm afraid it can only be found elsewhere.

https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewt ... &start=100

This says it is indeed forbidden.

It does not. That entire thread was specifically about card tracking, i.e. automated scraping of information transmitted by BGA and then using it to keep track of hand states. It was also based on the opinion of the 7 Wonders publisher, not BGA, who just went along with that. "Outside help" is condoned, as long as it doesn't play automatically.

sourisdudesert wrote: ↑10 September 2020, 16:47

Tadachini wrote: ↑10 September 2020, 16:11 No more cards in hands. I had a conversation with BGA admins who talked to the game publisher and game designer about Pythia. Their verdict was that every functionality is fine and in line with the spirit of the game except card tracking. So to respect their decision, Pythia doesn't offer this feature anymore.

I'd like to explain this a little bit, by trying to summarize what have been discussed with the publisher of 7 Wonders.

Board games are built for humans, which are limited. And a lot of the fun you get from the games is due to these limitations (ex: inability to see all possible moves at Chess). In the particular case of 7 Wonders, the spirit of the game is to focus on your own hand and your neighbors, so only a super-hero could be able to keep track of everything. Keeping track of everything is changing 7 Wonders into a different game, which may be fun, but which won't be 7 Wonders as designed by its game designer.

This is why the publisher said they are disapproving this specific features.

qwertasdfg wrote: ↑01 June 2021, 10:02 https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewt ... &start=100

This says it is indeed forbidden.

Though there is no absolute statement either. In the thread you link, they are simply taking the position of the publisher/author of the game, and follow as always "whatever the publisher/author think is the correct way to play the game is the truth" (this include options and variants, who must be approved by those). I'm pretty sure that if the publisher had said otherwise, they would have followed too.

As for chess, nobody owns the game, and I think FIDE's choice of banning engine is the most likely to be followed by BGA, but "anything goes as long as it's still a human making the move in the end" could also be a possibility.
Link to discussion in the Chess forum, where some Chess engine users argue their position https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 88&t=19284, the main argument being along the line of "BGA is the one of the few places where I can have engine user VS engine user duel, which is the only kind of Chess I enjoy".

That list they have explicitly said that board games are for humans with human short comings. And they also explicitly stated that this is indeed an argument for chess as well.

Sure, the last part of that part, with publishers and all isn't valid for chess. But everything else they said in that post, they said about all games, chess in particular