08-01-2014, 07:31 AM
StevieHilton Wrote:I have known of two incidents in the braille tournaments I have played on Skype. In both instances, the players scores were annulled and the points awarded. Of course you can have more than 1 Pc or laptop operating, but if a player is using an engine, then that will show in his play. Just run a game through an engine, that's how to catch them
While that is true at higher levels, I think you could clean up at Minors and Majors by looking at an engine when a tactic may be on, but playing the rest of your game as per usual. I believe that using an engine at critical moments is the main problem these days, now people are wise to just replaying Houdini gets caught very easily. Anyway, I guess that is another issue altogether.
Like some of the others on here, I would be unhappy about playing someone via a computer, because that is (live) correspondence chess, and takes out the whole fun of having someone sit opposite. OTB chess has a psychological aspect, and you just wouldn't get that playing like this. Of course it has its benefits, but I know that I would find it extremely off putting, and make me unlikely to perform at my normal level.
As for refusal to play, if I really didn't want to play someone I would just not turn up, ask for a bye, or arrive agonisingly after the default time. Would I do any of these? Unlikely. Would I enter an event knowing there was a decent possibility of playing a game like this? Unlikely.