A bit of a confession - I'm something of a chess nut, and the inception of online chess was for me one of the happiest moments in my life.If I'm honest I spend a bit too much time playing online chess, but it is quite addictive. You get to play people from all over the world and communicate through the universal language of chess.
Almost 3 years ago I entered a tournament that began with 96 players, and somehow by a combination of good luck and people dropping out, and the occasional good bit of play I kept getting through to the next round.
Because you are allowed 5 days for each move games can take an awful long time - I think there has been one that lasted 6 months or more. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, I was thrilled (and slightly proud) to discover I had made it to the last 4.
| 1. dGuran (2243) | X | _ _ | _ _ | 1 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2. me! (1961) | _ _ | X | _ _ | 1 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 3. ProVteur (1903) | _ _ | _ _ | X | 1 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 4. Bordiga (2551) | 0 0 | 0 0 | 0 0 | X | 0 | 0 |
The numbers in brackets are the rating figures, basically the higher the figure the better the player. In spite of the statistics I am the weakest player in the group - the chap with 1903 is actually better than me for reasons I won't bore my readers with.
Announcing this proudly to Mrs. L I followed it with the comment that it will be all downhill from here as the other players are stronger / much stronger than me, and the two strongest have already thrashed me 4 times between them.
So I come down to the computer yesterday to discover some interesting developments.
The chap with the strongest rating (2551 is only about 300 less than the world champion and would certainly place him in the category of people who might expect to earn a living from the game) has been thrown out for cheating, and his games awarded to his opponents.
There are a number of consequences to this; one is that I now won't finish any worse than third in the tournament - something beyond my wildest dreams at the start. But the main consequence is that my rating of 1961 (already rather higher than warranted to be honest) has gone through the roof because when you beat (or are awarded a game) against a stronger player your rating goes up, and the greater the difference in rating the greater the increase in points. So I am now on 2100 or more. As a consequence I received this rather nice message from Chess.com who host all the chess I play.
Congratulations on achieving a high rating on Chess.com! You are now among the strongest players on our site.
Whenever any player reaches this level we send out this message to highlight our policies and practices related to cheating. As a strong player, you should not be overly concerned about increased exposure to cheaters: We are doing everything we can to combat cheating on this site!
We have a zero-tolerance policy on cheating, and we have developed sophisticated (and very effective) cheat-detection methods.When we catch cheaters, we close their accounts immediately and ban them from future participation on Chess.com.
If you are at all unclear on our policies related to the use of chess software or reference materials, please review our FAQ on cheating. Otherwise, just relax and enjoy the game! We will remain vigilant, working hard to minimize the impact of cheating in your games and those of other honest players on our site.
We wish you best as you continue to play and improve!
Sincerely,
Chess.com
Of course the veiled warning is "if you cheat we will catch you and throw you out." If you don't know how people cheat they basically use a computer programme to make their moves, and since the best computer programmes can pretty much beat the best chess players in the world you really have no chance at all if you find yourself up against one. I don't even own a chess programme so the temptation doesn't arise, though I do have books, which they allow you to use.
So I now find myself ranked something like 1,900th out of 340,000 chess players.
This will not last, so I am enjoying the moment before the coming day - not too far off, I suspect, when I will be brought crashing down to earth.
But it is nice while it lasts!
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