I used to like, even love the game of chess. rather: liked it offline. I’ve since been cured of liking the online equivalent, courtesy of chess.com and other such cheater infested platforms (nearly all of them, actually). but like everything once normal, accepted, embraced, and such the internet happens to it. corrupts it, turns it into an Olympian style reality show, makes it Machiavellian AF. nothing’s off limits or impervious to this hyper competitiveness. you see it everywhere nowadays, whether its lifestyle comparisons, beauty, material excess, and what have you.

I even liked yahoo! chess back in its heyday. you could play an honest, one on one. sometimes you’d get your ass torn to shreds, other times you’d be administering that can of whoopass yourself.

I’ve played on chess.com some, I’m not entirely sure what my ratings were but they weren’t like I was some street grandmaster. I played enough to even learn different repetitive styles of various individuals from other countries. like the arrogant approach of eastern European or Russian players. or the crazy aggressive Indonesian ways. forces you to learn, adapt, and play outside of your own comfort zone. it’s not entirely dissimilar to the retro kung fu movies where the hero gets his ass kicked by the evil grandmaster, has to go into hiding to train and develop a new technique which then enables him to finally get his revenge.

my own approach is quite similar to how I like to fight (I’m a martial artist). I train in jeet kune do, and there are various principles that carries over: every attack is a defense, and every defense is an attack being one. strike first is another. and ending the fight in the shortest timeframe possible. simple, direct attacks too. these pieces of strategy courtesy of Bruce Lee.

however, it’s quite painfully obvious when your opponent is cheating with obvious computer enhanced moves. AI ‘thinks’ in a certain way: cold, lifeless, mathematical. its inorganic, detached, and even predictable. I’ve noted this in complaints about the platform before. and its no stranger to cheating issues that its aware of, and does nothing about. I’ve reported numerous cheaters to no effect. no acknowledgement ‘yeah we’re on it’.

personally I think when you abide even one, it proves you don’t have containment on the systemic problem at hand. and me having to report users also speaks to this.

this is the world we’re living in now. where cheating wasn’t merely tolerated, it was an expectant norm. why is the world of chess dominated by rampant cheating? because of the fragility of man’s pride, ego, and intellectual vanity. I do get a head rush defeating other opponents. it’s like martial arts of the mind. and I can see why the weak minded little shits employ cheating engines to win. they knew deep inside they could never acquire skills and ability to naturally win. they probably couldn’t score hot chicks, get the raise/promotion, or even dominate in online gaming or some shit. so to feel the synthetic sensation of being a winner, at the expense of others. I imagine there are many cheaters playing cheaters, and may the best AI win. which is a lose/lose. you don’t become great by consistently winning actually. chess is one of those funny games that reveals your weaknesses, lapses in judgment, planning, boldness, prudence, calculated risks, and strategies. if you’re playing your A game and lose, you still win. and it takes a winner to realize that fact.