Is playing for others cheating?

Maverick · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 15

If a player has his family or friends play on his account for him when he isn’t there in order to alter his rating (higher OR lower) is that cheating? The other day I was playing against a guy I have played against a lot and was chatting with him during the game. In the conversation, he didn’t sound like his usual self so I asked if something was wrong. To my surprise I learned that it was not my usual opponent, but his friend playing on his account! I didn’t think much of it until the friend said something like “he wanted me to play for him, but let’s just keep this between us okay?” When the friend asked me to keep it a secret it got me thinking about whether or not having other people play for you is cheating or not. Any opinions?

yendi · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 16

Well, I’d say that based on the very fact that the friend told you that he wanted to just keep it between the two of you and for you not to tell anyone shows that his conscience is guilty and that he, at least, thinks that it is a form of cheating. Aside from that, I think that doing anything to alter your rating so that it doesn’t give a true analysis of your game is cheating. A lot of people will intentionally lose beginner and intermediate matches in order to trick advanced players into high stakes money games and then show their true skills and win the game, and a lot of money. This is definitely considered cheating and I really don’t see any difference between that and getting someone else to play on your account for you.