MY LAST FIDE ONLINE ARENA UNFAIR PLAY REPORTS

Since May 2026, I have been an Arena International Master (AIM) in online chess. However, there are nuances.

I shall stop playing on FIDE Online Arena (FOA) and the site Worldchess.

Below are my latest unfair play reports that I have sent.

&&&

NN is very probably using a chess engine. In a 10 + 10 rapid game (39 moves), NN was disconnected several times in the middle of the game. NN used only 1 min 56 sec of thinking time, while NN’s performance was impossibly perfect: accuracy 0.99, average centipawn loss 2, inaccuracies 0.

&&&

NN is one such player who repeatedly offers a draw against players with a higher ELO. If the draw is rejected, NN takes a long pause. After that, NN plays abnormally fast and precisely as an altogether different player. I am pretty sure that a chess engine was in use.

&&&

NN – I think his games should be checked. I won him, but I think he is playing abnormally fast and precisely. In a 10 + 10 rapid game (47 moves), NN played astronomically fast: every single move was made using the time increment only. NN’s final thinking time is seriously negative: - 1 min 53 sec. Despite a very high speed, NN’s statistics are unbelievably good: accuracy 90%, average centipawn loss 15. When I played at normal speed, NN made only 1 inaccurate move. All the other inaccurate moves and mistakes NN made in a simple technical endgame, when I played extremely fast due to the Zeitnot. I suspect that NN (AFM!) is playing with the chess engine, and when the opponent plays very fast, he does not have time to read the chess engine's screen or thinks it is unnecessary. Thank you.

&&&

NN is very probably using a chess engine during a live game. In a 10 + 10 rapid game (53 moves), NN played at an astronomical pace. During the whole of the game, NN’s thinking time was negative. There were only some rare occasions when NN did not use the time increment only. At the end of the game, NN’s thinking time was seriously negative: - 1 min 29 sec. Despite a very high speed, there were long sequences of precise moves that NN made almost instantly. The statistics are also unbelievable: accuracy 0.91, average centipawn loss 15 (or 0.19). Inaccuracies 3 (or 5), mistakes 2 (or 3), blunders 0 (or 1). However, if we do not count the opening moves, it turns out that most of NN’s inaccuracies were practically the best moves to try to win, as White was in a Zeitnot and these moves were the only options to avoid very drawish endgames. 

I will stop playing on Worldchess because there are far too many cheaters, and Worldchess is far too slow to take them down. I cannot spend the rest of my life writing unfair play reports every single day, which seem useless anyway.

&&&

These were my last 4 unfair play reports. 

There are cheaters on every chess platform, and I have abandoned many of them.

The FOA is particularly peculiar. It is FIDE’s official gaming platform. However, no video cameras are used. The players cannot be blocked. One cannot set the rating difference for challenges. 

To obtain the title, one must play in tournaments, where one meets players with low ratings who use chess engines. It rather looks like the system wants you to play against the cheaters and tries to obstruct you if you try to avoid them.

Sometimes the system finally recovers your rating points, but you have already lost the chance to obtain the title, and the system does not restore that chance. You have to start everything all over again.

Worse. To obtain the title of, say, AGM, one has to be successful against those who already have the title of AGM or AIM. Unfortunately, the FOA has given such titles to several such players whose statistical data force one to conclude that, with very high probability, they are chess engine users. Their statistics are so astronomically perfect that I guess an ordinary OTB grandmaster would have little chance of beating them without using a chess engine.

All this not only makes it very difficult for a strong but honest player to obtain FOA's higher titles, but also makes such titles worthless. 

My fresh AIM title is worthless because the general background is such that people simply do not believe that I am not also a cheater - a player who uses a chess engine in live online games.

Such a title might even compromise my reputation. 

To be continued...

NO ONLINE CHESS?

I have cancelled playing on ChessCOM due to many chess engine users, in addition, that platform politicizes chess using it as a political tool.

Unfortunately, on LiChess there also too many chess engine users. 

The chess platforms, in effect, do not fight with the cheaters in order to not to lose a large amount of their users.

The situation is similar to the high schools and universities that financially depend on the number of their students and, in effect, are encouraging academic cheating on a large scale.

Probably, and unfortunately, perhaps I have to stop playing online chess altoghether.

The situation is such that I do not enjoy playing chess anymore. 

It does not feel like some kind of intellectual hobby anymore. 

THE FEELING OF A REAL WIN

I cannot speak on behalf of others. As for myself, my best feeling of success is not when I have received a lot of points or a high rating. Of course, I am disappointed when I lose a game or my rating points.

Nevertheless, the intense feeling of real success is not related to comparing with others. The genuine feeling is seeing that I have done something excellent and beautiful on the chessboard.

Recently, I had such a feeling in the rapid game EintaluJ - Xixiwang on Lichess. 

After the move 20...Rc8, Black offered a draw. I was already almost in a zeitnot.

After my long move, move 21 Qa3!, I felt like Bobby Fischer. I could not help but think that I was very smart.

I suppose cheaters who use chess engines during the game can never achieve such a high level of success-enjoyment.

That is a fundamental assumption which I cannot prove: that self-deception can never yield real pleasure. 

I STOP PLAYING RAPID GAMES ON CHESSCOM

In the new year, I will no longer play rapid chess games at CHESSCom.

There are too many cheaters, as on other chess platforms—lots of banal or smart cheaters.

I've been playing rapid chess there for 6 months. My username is "Mikromeister". 

When I reached a rating of 2000, I noticed that many of my opponents were cheating.

Databases and chess machines were used. 

For months, my rating has been swinging back and forth between 2250 and 2150.

I only achieve success when the cheaters are somehow asleep, and the normal chess players appear.

I just don't enjoy it. I can play against the chess engine without an internet connection as well. 

I don't learn much there, either. My opponent makes careless moves in the opening, and in a complex endgame, already in a losing position, he turns on the chess machine.

Every day, I have encountered cheaters. The record was 4 cheaters in a row.

By my estimate, CHESSCom detects maybe 1/5 of the cheaters. Since there are so many cheaters, it is perhaps economically disadvantageous for the paid platform to punish them all. 

Or it will be difficult to prove the fact of smart cheating.

In any case, I am absolutely fed up with what is going on there. Play without me.

I know how they are doing this today, but I will not describe that technique.

*** 

On the morning of 01 January 2025, I still played two games. Nothing has changed. Every second player with a rating above 2000 plays at the level of international master.

I do not want to participate in such a grand collective self-deception. 

CHESSCom Coerces Me to Play Chess

Above, I complained about a massive amount of cheaters using opening databases and chess engines during the rapid games. 

For some reason, there were more cheaters than usual during the holidays, and I lost about 100 rating points in a few weeks. 

The cheaters may have tried to achieve a higher rating before the end of the year 2024. I do not know.

Some of the readers of my post in my CHESSCom blog were sceptical, writing:

"This didn't make much sense to me."

However, I have not played rapid games on CHESSCom in the new year. Despite my passivity, I have received four messages from CHESSCom. As compensation, my rating has been adjusted, and I have got back 8 + 11 + 10 + 11 = 40 rating points.

Unfortunately, the adjustment announced does not show up in my rating. To add these 40 points to my current rating, I will probably have to play one more rapid game on CHESSCom.

In such a way, CHESSCom - the only chess platform that announces that Magnus and Ella are together - forces me to play at least one more chess game against the possible cheaters to get back my points grabbed by the cheaters.

However, perhaps I can regain my points even if I abort the next game I have started. 

We shall see. 

*** 

Yes, indeed, I got back my rating points grabbed by the cheaters only as soon as I started a new game against a potential cheater.

*** 

Meanwhile, some cheaters are losing some games because they do not look at the position on the board and trust one's chess engine in one's mobile phone. If they misread the engine's text, they make such blunders that no everyday chess player can do.

Not a Single Game 

I have downloaded all the rapid games I have played on CHESSCom.

The PGN-s are incorrect, and I must handwrite approximately 30 games I have played and commented on there.

After all, CHESSCom is a paid service.

I made my commented game collection, "Two Knights Defence", which includes 65 rapid games invisible.

Why should I share my opening theory analyses for free with opponents who cheat and use materials and chess engines during rapid games?

I shall no longer play a single chess game on CHESSCom due to the frequent occurrence of cheaters.

I will also cancel my subscription.

I will review the study materials as long as I can still use the platform. Some seem useful and interesting, even for experienced players.