Cheating in the chess: How well can we expose fraudsters? [embed] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJM2mawrhwo [/embed]

Cheating in the chess: How well can we expose fraudsters? [embed] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJM2mawrhwo [/embed]

In the area of chess, the question of how well players are to find out is received new attention. The chess master and economist David Smerdon from the University of Queensland in Australia carried out two exciting experiments. In a recent podcast conversation, he explained to the participants that the ability of people to recognize fraudsters is not much better than the throw of a coin.

SMERDON not only researches academically, but also wants to help the chess community. In his first experiment, the "Cheating Challenge", eight players with different play strengths took part in a double round tournament (ELO from 1600 to 2300). The participants received the indication of certain rounds that they could receive support from Schachengines. At the end of the tournament, players were allowed to use points to accuse others of the fraud. A successful accuse would bring additional points, while a wrong accusation led to the loss of the sets. In this way, the researchers wanted to find out how well players are really recognizing fraud.

insights into the Cheating Challenge

The results of the first study were revealing: the success rate for the accusations was 69 percent. This means that the players were slightly better than chance, but not significant. Smerdon also noticed that players who believed to be opposed to a fraudster in their later games cut significantly worse. This is due to a feeling of fainting and shame that affected over the entire duration of the tournament.

Another interesting observation was that the fraudsters also suffered from their own achievements as soon as they knew that they were using Schachengines. They were so distracted and felt guilty that this had a negative impact on their way of playing. This questions the assumption that fraudsters receive significant benefits in the game through occasional help. Smerdon said: "This is a Ceteris Paribus thing; if everything else stays the same, this will happen. The problem is that you don't play in the usual strength if you know that you have cheated."

As a crucial feature that drives the distrust of players, it turned out that it was not the point difference or the number of engine-generated trains, but how poorly the victim had played. Players who made many mistakes tended to accuse their opponents. Smerdon suspects that this could be a psychological mechanism in order not to have to admit their own mistakes.

The "Can you recognize a fraudster?"-Test

Smerdon carried out another comprehensive experiment that is considered the biggest test on chess fraud worldwide. Here the success rate was around 54 percent. The participants had to fill out a survey with seven different chess areas, whereby they had the opportunity to evaluate the trains with an engine afterwards. Over 4000 people took part in this test.

The results even exceeded Smerdon's expectations. He knew that the test was challenging because he rated various independent games in another environment. Nevertheless, he was disappointed: "With such a large sample you could have thought that the results are better than chance. It is terrifying how bad we are in it."

It turned out that more experienced players had a higher chance of recognizing fraudsters, but they too would often not have achieved more than 58 percent. Even Grand Master Fabiano Caruana, who also took part in the test, only scored 3 out of 7 possible points. Smerdon summarized: "It is an extremely difficult task and many players overestimate their ability to recognize a fraudster."

The researcher wants these studies to raise awareness and serve as orientation for players in order to recognize fraud in chess and react to them. It turns out that the reality is far behind the expectations and that a rethink in dealing with fraud could be necessary. In order to learn more about Smerdon's research, interested parties can see the presentation films on chess fraud research, which he recently presented in the Saint Louis Chess Club.