Chess.com is one of the biggest digital chess platforms in the world, with over 100 million members. But as the site has grown and become more popular, it has also attracted naughty players who break the rules and don’t play fair. And these days, according to the site’s Fair Play team, over 100,000 accounts are closed each month because of cheating.
In a July 15 blog post from Chess.com, the site’s 30-person Fair Play dig into the data about cheaters and how the site is trying to get better at finding them and ultimately removing them from the site. It ain’t an easy task, as over 20 million games of chess are played on the platform every single day. But the team has gotten pretty good at detecting cheaters and banning their accounts.
One interesting stat that Chess.com’s Fair Play team shared in the blog post is that nearly 40 percent of closed accounts are less than two weeks old. This means the team’s methods of finding and punishing naughty players and bots are doing a solid job of catching cheaters early. But Chess.com thinks it can do an even better job at keeping cheaters out.
“One of the ways we’re tackling this phenomenon is by screening players more frequently early in their journey on the platform,” said Chess.com’s Fair Play team. “This means we’re generating reports for players that essentially serve as checkpoints as they play more games. It is entirely reasonable (and expected) that it may take time for someone to establish their rating, so these checkpoints go beyond games played and rating earned, but also include strength of play and over 100 other gameplay factors.”
The team also shared that it uses algorithms to look out for extraordinary examples of cheating or inhuman behavior. With only 30 people watching and 20 million games a day, it makes sense that the team would need extra help. All of this is in service of making sure most players who hop onto Chess.com have a good time. Now, the real question is: How many of these cheaters were using anal beads?
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