All About Cheating - Part 2: The Psychology and Pathology of Cheaters

TLDR Begin...

When it comes to the topic of "cheating", it is always a very good idea for us to choose something else to talk about.

...TLDR End.

Cheating, in chess, is the result of pathologies that were left unchecked, instead of being checked by using the ability to choose good behaviour instead of misbehaviour.

There is no doubt that these pathologies run roughshod throughout all other areas of life, including how people: deal with family; deal with friends; deal with business practices; how they view their life and how they engage with it; how they view their neighbours and how they engage with them; how they view humankind and how they engage with it; how they view life, itself, and how they engage with it; which types of hobbies they choose and how they engage with them; which types of career paths they choose and how they engage with them; how much emphasis they place on things like honesty, integrity, dignity, etc.; which types of people they surround themselves with and how they engage with them; which types of values that they consciously/subconsciously embrace and to what degree; etcetera.

There are several types of cheaters, caused by numerous different, and sometimes combined, pathologies.

It should also be noted that most of the people with these pathologies initially took up chess as a relaxing pastime in order to escape their chaotic lives, and, initially, had no conscious intentions of cheating. This point highlights and elevates the severity and urgency of a need for good behaviour; it does not mitigate it.

These are just a few of the contributing pathologies, but they are in no specific order, as they function on a sliding scale and often bleed into one another, to some degree or another.

Also, note that most of these pathologies, to some degree, are highly encouraged and developed in the psyches of almost everyone, in a more general and broader sense, simply by the context of 'life in 2024, within the context of planet earth'; and particularly in societies which are exposed to high amounts of a media, which is chiefly used to maximize a dollar profit by catering to the egos of the people who absorb it:

1. Attention seekers.

These could be people whose parents didn't value them or ignored them; these could be people whose parent(s) were single and didn't have time for them; these could be people who didn't have siblings or friends, and, therefore, felt that they were invisible in the world.

Their pathology would be one where they've learned that:

"Any attention is better than no attention, and I'd rather be hated than invisible."

(If we were having a discussion on a broader scale, we could talk about what things like "status" and "beauty standards" have to do with this conversation, but we can leave it in the microcosm of the chess world and easily extrapolate to other arenas.)

For these types of cheaters, in chess, their hallmark is making sure that they get your attention using the chat box and making sure that they're the person you remember playing that day.

Some of them will use the chatbox to make themselves an antagonist in hopes of elevating your animosity where they can then "win the fight" by delivering a silicon assisted checkmate.

Some of them will even boast that they are cheating and that there is nothing that you can do about it.
To them, the more people that know or suspect them of cheating, the better. "Winning" has little to do with it, this is their primary purchase.

Whether at the board or in the forums, the more people who they can cause to suspect that cheating is rampant, the better.

The more people who acknowledge their existence and/or their misbehaviour, the better.

Remember..."How dare you not notice them? How dare you just ignore them? They're a human being with wants, needs, passions, hopes, dreams, and a life to live!"...is what lives on in their minds...and is highly influential in their thinking...whether they're consciously aware of this, or not.

It is a deep-seated pathology of the mind, psychological damage, that is using the chess public in order to sate what it thinks it needs...which is to be seen...to be heard...to be understood...to be valued.

To us? They're just cheating and damaging the chess world.

To themselves? They're finally getting a chance to be heard, seen, validated as existing, and acknowledged.

Cheating does nothing to sate them, but they don't know any better.

For all intents and purposes, they're running an autopilot program that has no idea how to get them where they want to go, much less the awareness that they have a destination.

For these reasons, this kind of a cheater is a sad case and we hope that they choose more productive methods of dealing with their damage.

2. The psychopath/sociopath.

These are people who are often highly quasi-intelligent and have become accustomed to "being the smartest person in the room". Perhaps they saw a rerun of "Searching for Bobby Fischer"; perhaps they saw "The Queen's Gambit"...whatever the case...they've come here to show the chess world "how it's really done"...and then they find out that it's not so easy.

(I use the phrase "quasi-intelligent" because a hallmark of people with this pathology is to blindly destroy the very source of their needs, wants, enjoyment, before moving on to their next "challenge" and their next "success".)

Inherent with a psychopathic/sociopathic mindset is that of having an elevated ego where they say to themselves, "I'm the one person in this room who REALLY counts, who REALLY deserves to win, who REALLY is the best, and other people are just 'there'. Sure, life is probably exercising throughout them and their lives the same way it is me, but I feel that I'm special and should always get the biggest piece...because I'm me!"

So, when they can't manage to beat a 10 year old kid at a board game, they take offense and literally feel 'attacked'; they feel like something is 'wrong'; they feel like something 'needs to be corrected'.

Then, they sometimes use silicon where they can "defend themselves" and where they can really show everyone 'who's who and what's what'...often rationalizing that others are too stupid and naive to also engage in cheating in order to 'even the odds', and that this refusal for others to participate in cheating in order to "win" is actually a deficiency and weakness of their character. The question of destroying online chess, altogether, is excused, dismissed, talked around, and ignored.

They are the epitome of the person who is enjoying a bike ride, and then, for reasons unbeknownst to themselves, they just decide to go ahead and jam a stick in the spokes.

This is someone who couldn't care less about the people they're cheating or the dignity and integrity of the chess world that they're destroying. Their subconscious minds rationalize their abuses before their conscious minds even have a chance to get a hold of the thought process.

However, when they're made to come face-to-face with themselves, they're quoted as saying things like: "Do you think it's easy being me? Do you think it's easy knowing that if everyone who I passed in a mall knew my secrets, that they would hate me and despise me, and even vomit at the mere sight of me?" - Ted Bundy (paraphrased)

They are subconsciously locked in an insatiable cycle, largely controlled by an insatiable ego, where all of their "victories", in chess and otherwise, are completely empty and fail to sate and bring them the peace that they don't even understand that they seek, much less what would be required to provide it.

Can you imagine winning a game of chess against a titled master and being incapable of enjoying that victory?

Me neither. It sounds horrible.

This is also the type of cheater who will often think of themselves as being cowardly and weak for beating up on unsuspecting chess players, and they will then turn their sights on the anti-cheat teams and their ability to detect and ban cheaters, and they will make a new game of eluding cheat detection: "The people who detect cheating must be some of the strongest chess players in the world. If I can evade them, then I'm even smarter than they are and I will be the smartest of them all!"

(On a positive note, for this reason, the vast majority of these types of cheaters are over at Chesscom where they can defeat the so-called "best cheat detection on the planet".)

To us? They're just cheating and damaging the chess world.

To themselves? They're attempting to subconsciously scratch an itch that they're probably not conscious of.

Cheating does nothing to sate them, but they don't know any better.

For all intents and purposes, they're running an autopilot program that has no idea how to get them where they want to go, much less the awareness that they have a destination.

For these reasons, this kind of a cheater is a sad case and we hope that they choose more productive methods of dealing with their damage.

3. Power-Trippers and Control-Freaks.

This is a person who was probably made to feel powerless in their formative years or later in life. Perhaps they were bullied; perhaps a parent was abusive; perhaps they suffered crime and/or injustice.

In the mind of this person might be a narrative that's concluded: "I'd rather be a bully than be the victim of a bully."

When they take loss after loss and 'beating' after 'beating', it's almost inevitable that these deep-seated systems, which were invented around that same theme, then trigger and provide a subconscious synapse which suggests that they could finally have a chance to "right the wrongs" by making use of silicon.

To us? They're just cheating and damaging the chess world.

To themselves? They're taking a mulligan on their childhood and redoing it where they're not the victim anymore.

Cheating does nothing to sate them, but they don't know any better.

For all intents and purposes, they're running an autopilot program that has no idea how to get them where they want to go, much less the awareness that they have a destination.

For these reasons, this kind of a cheater is a sad case and we hope that they choose more productive methods of dealing with their damage.

4. Sadists.

While probably not a necessary condition, experiencing and/or witnessing acute trauma in their formative years seems to be a common thread. Although, it could be argued that opening a history book and taking it personally, could do the same damage.

These would be people who have spent time: aiming for ants and bugs as they walked across the street in order to catch a grasshopper so they could pop the head off and watch it jump around; killing frogs with firecrackers; growing kittens inside of glass bottles; laughing at people who are struggling, and where the harder the struggle the harder they laugh; etc.

(These types of cheaters, alongside the attention seekers, were the same group of people who would enjoy clearing out an FPS gaming server, by overtly cheating, when nobody was there to ban them.)

These are people who derive pleasure from sourcing others with displeasure or pain, and/or take glee in watching the displeasure or pain of others.

Alongside the attention-seekers, look for people with this pathology to antagonize or taunt you in the chat box.

To us? They're just cheating and damaging the chess world.

To themselves? They're getting their kicks. The more the world discusses their misbehaviour, the better they think that they feel.

Cheating does nothing to sate them, but they don't know any better.

For all intents and purposes, they're running an autopilot program that has no idea how to get them where they want to go, much less the awareness that they have a destination.

For these reasons, this kind of a cheater is a sad case and we hope that they choose more productive methods of dealing with their damage.

5. Engine Addicts.

Ironically, while probably the least mean-spirited of the bunch, this segment is the most represented segment in the swaths of testimonies surrounding confessed cheaters. This could be because they are most likely to confess, or it could be because they are the most pervasive.

The engine addict is somebody who has spent lots of time using silicon in order to assess game positions. Over time, the lack of an engine in live games becomes more and more glaring, and it almost presents itself as an addiction where there is a 'need to know what the engine would say'.

Typically, this isn't enough to turn someone into a cheater; however, they may turn it on in order to both study and play their games at the same time, thinking that it's most efficient, but find themselves on a slippery slope playing through a computer variation 'in the name of learning and not in the name of cheating one's opponent', where they find themselves cheating.

Another variation that is common in testimonials, is that once suspicion about people using assistance becomes prevalent in their psyche, that they employ an engine to play detective "just to prove my suspicions correct" or "just to see how many cheaters are actually out there".

To us? They're just cheating and damaging the chess world.

To themselves? They're just gathering information in a way that indirectly facilitates cheating.

6. The Care Less

These are the Johnny-Come-Latelies who don't really care about the game or the chess world. They're just here to see what all of the fuss is about and they don't care about the damage they do when they give up trying to understand how we checkmate them, and then decide to use an engine for a couple days before they then abandon the game and move onto something else.

This segment of cheaters are probably substantial, but they are also the most transient and temporary.

7. The Lazy Master

This is a chess player who feels that, because they're a titled master, they have a right to use the assistance of opening books and engine assistance while playing. They know that they can often find some of the same ideas that these computers come up with, and so they don't see it as though they're really cheating.

We can easily imagine their rationales of, "I play at this level anyway", or "It's just a more efficient study method to run the engine alongside my game", etc.

Obviously, this kind of cheater overlaps with aforementioned pathologies.

What a pity.

On a side note, titled masters who cheat, and titled masters who spotlight the issue of cheating for monetary gain, are not behaving intelligently.

They are people who can play chess very well, but whose ability to debate a chess position, and intellectual competency, apparently, ends at the borders of those 64 squares.

Chess is their livelihood!

Both cheating, and spot-lighting cheating, do everything to increase the problem and nothing to mitigate it!

If it ever became the case that "the majority of the chess world assumes that the majority is cheating", then that would be it for the online interest in the game, marketing and funding would take a massive hit, prize pools would shrink, and that would be it for their own careers.

It's a little bit like having a boss who pays you a comfortable living to do what you enjoy...but then you go and steal 5 dollars out of his pocket...right in front of his face...while he's watching you...and you see him watching you.

When it comes to the topic of "cheating", it is always a very good idea for us to choose something else to talk about.

In general:

When we see people with combinations of these pathologies, we can quickly see how people with these pathologies end up being the types of people who poison peoples' drinks at clubs and parties; who hurt children; who hurt the elderly; who commit genocide; who would cancel this planet inside 200 years if it meant that they could "win" for a lifetime; etc.; and who laugh at and/or take this paragraph lightly.

In conclusion:

The common thread behind all of these pathologies is a long-standing precedent and protocol of misbehaviour which is caused by a refusal to see ourselves within our neighbour.

The common thread behind all instances of cheating, is the refusal to check these pathologies at the door by making good use of our ability to choose good behaviour, instead.