Have the ratings changed recently?

There IS something weird going on on this site, I swear it.

When a 1900 player with white can go 20 moves against the Pirc with 19 perfect moves and just one innacuracy, I smell a rat. Bear in mind that there is a 5 minute limit so they only have a few seconds per move.

You could say they have memorised how to play against the PIRC defence, but the Pirc is one of the less common replies to e4. So what about the Sicilian Dragon, Sicilian Najdorf, Petrov defence, French defence, Modern defence, Caro-Kann, Alekhine defence and all the main e5 lines? They memorized those for 20 moves too? .

I dont buy it.

It just isn't fun playing that kind of chess

Magnus has been playing the Pirc in the latest tournament, and yes formerly the Norwegian rat ;) if that smells... Chess theory is allot more accessible these days, try not to get trampled getting back into form.

@CHRIS_ZIFO said in #21:
> There IS something weird going on on this site, I swear it.
>
> When a 1900 player with white can go 20 moves against the Pirc with 19 perfect moves and just one innacuracy, I smell a rat. Bear in mind that there is a 5 minute limit so they only have a few seconds per move.
>
> You could say they have memorised how to play against the PIRC defence, but the Pirc is one of the less common replies to e4. So what about the Sicilian Dragon, Sicilian Najdorf, Petrov defence, French defence, Modern defence, Caro-Kann, Alekhine defence and all the main e5 lines? They memorized those for 20 moves too? .
>
> I dont buy it.
>
> It just isn't fun playing that kind of chess

Perhaps your Opponent also plays the Pirc? Not saying they do but it is one reason they might be able to play well against it.

Yeah, it seemed to be a Caro Kann player. Pretty sure some weird things are going on

@BlockMyPremove said in #22:
> Magnus has been playing the Pirc in the latest tournament, and yes formerly the Norwegian rat ;) if that smells... Chess theory is allot more accessible these days, try not to get trampled getting back into form.

Yeah, knowledge of all the best opening moves certainly is "accessible". That was kind of my point.

By the way, I just played a player rated 1860 and he played like a human being. It used to be the case that everyone on here played like that

@CHRIS_ZIFO said in #26:
> By the way, I just played a player rated 1860 and he played like a human being. It used to be the case that everyone on here played like that

@CHRIS_ZIFO you mean KLMartin? I looked at the game and for me it's not suspicious. You gave him a positional advantage by playing very passively.

For instance
8. .. Nb8 - undeveloping your knight and giving him a huge center
10. .. Ng4 - losing a tempo because he can simply play h3 and you have to move it again
12. .. Nh6 - Your knight was better placed at f6. Now you have 1 less piece to contest his strong center.
13. .. Qb6 - Again losing a tempo because your opponent can simply play Be3

Here's my takeaway:
- It was very easy for him to play because he had a space advantage and lots of good squares to place his pieces.
- You didn't challenge his center and had worse squares for your pieces
- He had better development (you undeveloped your knight and gave him tempis)

Here's a principle that you probably didn't know and I recently learned :). If you're back in development, you should not open up the position which you unfortunately did on move 16. .. e5 and the result was closing down your dark squared bishop. Also the light squared bishop was looking sad at c8.

@TheGreatBlunderini said in #27:
>

Everything you said is true.

But to me, it is just very odd that a 1900 plays that well and happens to know that opening for 20 moves. When a player attacks like that and attacks so aggressively, they nearly always leave gaps and chances. That is my experience of many years playing on this site, but things seem a bit different recently.

@TheGreatBlunderini said in #27:

Here is another opponent I just played using the Pirc (also around 1900). He seemed real. He attacked, he had an advantage, but there were always gaps for me to aim for. I dont mind losing, i just want to feel that I am playing a real person and there is a CHANCE I could have won.

Anyways. There will be people cheating because of ego reasons. You'll have to move forward and just play. Accept it as an opportunity to improve.

If you believe someones cheating, just report the user.