The post that was quoted here has been removedMy name is Kristaps Kretainis
My ELO is 2169 (could be higher if I could play more in ELO tournaments) - you can check it in FIDE list.
My national rating (similar system to ELO) is 2279
There are players from Latvia, (for example kbaumen, skydiver and Portugalis) who can confirm my identity.
You may start your personal analyses (I know that you are trying to accuse me) and I dont afraid them.
P.S. I dont think that site admins will approve mods they dont trust and I`m pretty sure that new mods will be checked very carefully.
Why not go the job interview way?
Only candidates with established OTB records will be considered.
These people will need to confirm their identities by faxing Russ copies of their identity documents and possibly other supporting documentation that will be difficult to falsify. Russ may even have to call them at home to have a 'chat'?
Candidates will obviously have their games checked by people Russ trusts explicitly - Phlab, Tebb, Tony?
I can't speak for Russ, but these are the guys I would choose. This process may have to be pretty transparent - or will that turn into another lynch mob?
Candidates must be subscribers who have been members for at least 2 years.
Don't throw away the popular vote. If these guys are going to be in a position of trust, they have to be at least somewhat active in the forums.
Just to throw a hat in the ring.
No1 should possibly be considered. I do remember him putting a vast amount of effort into making a multitude of cases against several players. In fact made a massive stink over it.
I have never heard his name mentioned as a cheater, certainly wants to be rid of them, and has the ability to search, and research them out.
Like or hate him, he does seem to know what hes doing in this aspect.
Go Korch! The return of Korch!
Just like to say that I played Korch on here blitz at a time limit that he wouldnt have enough time to be able to load the moves into fritz and he beat me like a 2300.
Not saying that, thats conclusive proof, or that Im qualified to say what his rating is or anything, but the guy knows chess. Just hoping to add another data point in the Korch campaign.
arriakis is rumored to be steve exeter. he used to have an image in his profile that was linked to a image hosting service the exact image he has now with the name steve exeter in it. He did not answer the question when I asked him about it and he has since changed the image hosting of the picture. I would like proof that he isnt steve before voting for him.
Originally posted by HomerJSimpsonWho the heck is Steve Exeter? And why would you feel the need to track down the identity of a RHP player and out him in a public forum??? That seems kind of inappropriate!
arriakis is rumored to be steve exeter. he used to have an image in his profile that was linked to a image hosting service the exact image he has now with the name steve exeter in it. He did not answer the question when I asked him about it and he has since changed the image hosting of the picture. I would like proof that he isnt steve before voting for him.
Regarding Korch!
I had never played against him in real tournaments in Latvia (my chess knowledges is in lower level), but I can confirm following:
1) He is a real chess player
2) I saw him playing in lot of tournaments and with different time controls (5 minutes, 1 hour, 2,5 hours)
3) Some of my friends with rating around 2000 had played against Korch and lost to him.
4) I have not any doubts regarding Korch`s chess knowledges and rating which is achieved honestly and in real tournaments.
Taht is what I saw with my eyes and can stay behind each of points what I said in this forum.
Originally posted by misterrigelA player called "Exy" was banned several years ago. He re-registered as "Steve Exeter" to defend himself in the forums. I think Arrakis was in the same clan as him and several of the clan members, including Arrakis, spoke up for Exy as well. I looked at quite a lot of Exy's games about a year ago (without running them through an engine) and his improvement did seem impossible, going from a complete (and I mean _complete_) beginner to 2000+ in a pretty short space of time. He claimed that this was because he didn't try very hard when he first joined the site. I was not convinced by his arguments and I think the ban was correct.
Who the heck is Steve Exeter? And why would you feel the need to track down the identity of a RHP player and out him in a public forum??? That seems kind of inappropriate!
Anyway, shared avatar or not, I am almost certain than Exy / Steve Exeter and Arrakis are not the same person.
I decided to add some remarks...
a) There are two kinds of game screening.
One is mostly about checking to which degree do the games match popular engine choices. There is some theory here (for example contrary to the common belief moves made in calm situations may matter more than resolving forced tactics correctly, http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~regan/chess/fidelity/ provides some ideas), but in general performing such analysis does not require significant chess knowledge. To make such analysis one need to a) have fast PC, b) possess a couple of chess engines and c) be able to perform the game analysis in disciplined and repeatable way (maybe script it...), plus d) be able to write concise numeric conclusions. And of course e) agreement to spend time on those activities. Chess strength is not that important here, in fact some experience with statistics and programming means more than elo. Bah, the team which conducts this kind of analysis could be built from the statistician - the leader who would write instructions how to perform analysis and how to report the results, and who would coordinate the work, and a couple of people ready to spend time executing those instructions and owning as many different chess engines as possible.
Another is spotting "engine-like" moves and maneouvres. Minimax engines (and all engines on the market fit this category) have some common playing style, and it is possible to spot some signs of it. Here elo matters a lot, good chess players are more likely to spot those signs ... but only if they have some anti-engine playing or engine-analysing experience. OTB player who is heavily using engines for his preparation/training is good candidate here, OTB player who relies more on his human creativity and training would not be that helpful (although he still could be able to estimate how likely is a human to find some maneouvres), strong ICCF/IECG/Freestyle player with deep knowledge about engine-assisted play could in fact be the best for this task.
To summarize: good game moderation team should likely be a group of people with fairly different expertise and tasks.
b) Not sure how game moderation used to be performed previously, but I know about some places where people who are to analyse the game do not know who was playing the game. Also, as the "game style" analysis is subjective, it usually makes sense to gather opinion from a few experts (best if they do not know one about another so do not consult).
c) As some people already said, I do not see a point in public voting here. How are people to decide who would perform those tasks well and who would not?
After reading blog of some Scandinavian player mentioned in the other thread, I am ever more convinced that game mods should analyse anonymised games. Plus one should avoid cases when somebody is analysing the game of his direct competitor in some important tournament or event, this is obvious conflict of interest....
Right now I could care less who is the game mod. I'm more worried about the integerity of the game mod system. What is to prevent a honest player having their name tarnished and be banned because a game mod mistakely called them a cheater. To me that is greater wrong than letting a cheater play at the site.
Maybe the people who want to be game mods should be put to the test. For example they should play ten games. In those ten games there will be a unknown number of cheaters. If the game mod canditate can determine who is cheating and not falsely accuse anyone of cheating then they will become a game mod without any further action needed.
Because its not about proving who you are or being good at chess but accurately spotting cheaters. Otherwise the whole system of game mods is open to suspicion. Especially if the game mods are elected because they are popular in the forums. If that is the case I will not feel sorry for the game mods if the lynch mob composed of people wrongly accused comes for them.