Legal Computer Assistance

I have a suggestion to radically reduce cheating in Lichess AND improve everyone’s skills.

If cheating is a crime in chess, then the most effective way to fight it is to fulfill the needs of the criminals. Cheaters know their ratings are faked. It they just wanted to win, they would just play lower rated opponents. Yet I believe their main motivation is just to LEARN, from computer assistance. Thus the best way to reduce cheating is to provide legal computer assisted games.

That’s not a new concept. In the 1970s, Kasparov called “Advanced Chess” the act of playing with computer assistance. I haven’t found many resources on that matter, but there are some. For instance, in Fritz application we have:

- “Dynamic Hints”: Arrows show up while you move a piece
- “Opening Hints”: What book moves you have
- “Threatened Squares”: Pieces that can be captured at that position (by both sides)

But I believe we can do much better, don’t you? If you do, then let me hear your suggestions first, please!

PS: Kasparov stated that a Human+Computer team can be stronger than either one alone.

i'm all for some form of centaur (aka advanced) chess being officially supported, but i disagree about a cheater's motivation. it's more of an ego thing

There is no legal computer assistance

jugando90,

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I'm suggesting a chess variant, were both players have the same set of resources, provided by Lichess interface, to enhance their play, though the game still follows regular chess rules.

#2 has it right. There is or use to be a thing in USCF? I think that allowed a computer + human duo. I forget what it is called.

#4 I like the idea and support it 100%.

It might be legal here to use computer assistance while playing anonymously. Lots of anonymous players use engines.

@1

We have the team created here, not supported yet by Lichess (rating-wise) but perhaps in the future who knows.

en.lichess.org/team/cyborg

Computers can find brilliant moves, if we leave them thinking for some time. Example: en.lichess.org/study/MtiNXZHC

But actually, if computers just show us things that are hard to see, we can find the brilliant moves too. In the game from the link above, it is hard to think about Bd5, because white has a pawn in that square. Though the arrows I have added to that game would make it easier to think about a sacrifice:

en.lichess.org/study/MtiNXZHC

Of course, it is annoying to have so many arrows being shown at once, but they could be dynamic. For example, we would shown a sequence of arrows with a path for the knight only when the mouse is over that knight, or at least over one of the squares of that path.

yeah that sort of annoys me (all the arrows at once) i like ur idea @9 @EvilChess