I have never seen in any ToA; at any chess site; mentioning the use of a physical board along side a game in play as being against the rules or in any way considered cheating. It does not in anyway shape or form confer an advantage to one player.
NeverBeenTimid's argument is that it "might be/could be" used as an analysis board, rendering the practice as against the rules is 100% mistaken. There are dozens+ examples of what "might be/could be" construed as giving a player an advantage. The position he takes I think most just regard as being silly. What's next? Having a bigger monitor, a custom 3D interface, a $1000 gaming mouse makes for an unfair advantage?
Saying that some might consider an unfair advantage, so they won't use a real board and pieces, which means I have an advantage by using real board and pieces is called circular reasoning. It is a textbook logical fallacy.
Your last hope is literally in textbooks demonstrating why it is wrong. It's not "pedantic." It's wrong.
1) It gives absolutely no advantage
2) It is not forbidden on any chess site
3) It is not a gray area
4) It is not a contentious issue
Anything else you'd like to be wrong about? 4 for 4 so far.
IMO it's worth noting that this topic has the word "control" and the first post makes a vague criticism (and offers a well-intended suggestion).
Which is why I responded exactly as I did in #2, trying to defuse this time bomb of a topic. And again in #20. But it seems this topic will never die...
The topic is about players that use 5-6 seconds for their opening moves, that taking an equal amount of time might be an indication of possible cheating. This observation would at 1st glance might have some validity, but PhillipTheTank pointed out making such an assumption can be dangerous and misleading by giving an example. (A very good point was made).
NeverBeenTimid responded with which sidetracked the topic:
"Just because you don't think the subject is contentious doesn't mean it isn't. I know some people like replicating the OTB experience by using a real board and personally I have no problem with that. I know many people do though and they will say you have an unfair advantage and many online chess sites state somewhere in their TOS that it's technically not allowed. I've not checked Lichess policy on this tbh."
This statement is false and unsubstantiated. No chess sites ban the practice. Nobody thinks of it as unfair or technically cheating.
I had not thought of using a physical board in longer classical games, but it seems very reasonable. Some players are accustomed to the 3D experience, may not play as well in 2D. I do not see how this could be in any way labeled as an unfair advantage. An unfair advantage is something or someone that assists a player in selecting a move.
Since you want to argue about it (I was quite content not mentioning it), let's argue about
lichess.org/terms-of-service :
1. Cheating is defined as using anything, other than your own knowledge, that gives you an advantage when playing against another user.
Rules exist to set people's expectations; this rule doesn't mention "fair" or "unfair".
Having a good mouse could be considered advantageous, although I've never seen the rule enforced that way. Similarly this rule does ban use of a chess board (which could confer an advantage), although I haven't seen it enforced in that way either. NeverBeenTimid's point is substantiated, even if he's wrong.
At any rate... my general point is that this forum topic can do little more than spread FUD, particularly if future replies do not add relevant information.
The intent of the rule is obvious, the wording of the rule is atrocious because it allows such ludicrous interpretations as presented above. It definitely needs to be amended.
However, I still don't see why you think using a chess board confers some sort of advantage. No one has demonstrated this in the least. Just repeatedly claimed it.
Sure, a better mouse could confer an advantage because you can faster and more accurately. What is the claim for a chess board? You can...move more slowly? And manually move your opponent's pieces and your own twice? The claim doesn't even make sense to me. What is the possible advantage? It's a difference, not an advantage. Just like the colors of your chess board. I use the blue chess board colors. What a huge advantage. (??)
How can having a better mouse be interpreted as as giving an advantage? This is absurd. All such hardware needs to be included. This is not the intent of the rule. Obviously, if people are "technically" interpreting it as such, the rule needs to be rewritten.
Upon further review, maybe staff should take a look into writing an improved version, as the statement is much to broad and unclear.
Well,if you play a game,there are system that detects cheating.If you get a notification that opponent cheated during the game.It usually says "Cheat detected,white is victorious" for example.If you get that notification then feel free to report opponent and moderators will review the game soon.Anyways,the suggestion to automatically send the "cheated" games to moderators is good idea and it's a good way to reduce the amount of cheating.
#26 On other sites I play correspondence chess, and using a real board increased my rating. IMO using a board is a "fair" advantage (and nobody here disputes that it's fair) but I agree with #27 that ToS rule 1 is poorly written.
IMO changing rule 1 "anything" to "any form of assistance" would sufficiently disambiguate, and that's even compatible with the label applied to cheaters ("uses computer assistance")!
Increasing your rating does not mean that you have an advantage over your opponent. It means you are playing better than you were before. It could be because you are more comfortable than you were. Heck, I could play with 25 chess boards in front of me and still not have an advantage over most opponents.
