Were you winning a slow game, then all of a sudden your opponent becomes a chess genius? You might want to think twice before you give him the credit. Internet cheating is horribly common and now very easy to do. Especially in the top sites like ICC and FICS where they can plugin winboard and make you play their one of their computer chess engines like crafty.
The most commonly used method is just task switching. They have a chess program running in the background. You make a move, on lets say, a chess game in yahoo. They switch to their chess program and make the move you made. The computer makes a move. They go back to yahoo and make the move the computer made.
ICC, yahoo, FICS, and many other major chess sites connect to winboard. The user can then just install an engine and login to a chess site. A few minutes of looking through winboard's documentation will make anyone play like a grandmaster. They even provide a huge list of engines making the cheater feel like he's playing a game of management to get a higher rating.
One computer has the chess game up and the other has their favorite chess engine on it recommeding moves or flat out playing you.
I'm not sure what people can do to prevent this since even most online commercial games are succeptible, but a person can use a program like soft ice to see what kind of packets the program is sending and receiving. Once it is decrypted, if needed. The input can be sent to a chess program analyzing/suggesting moves on the side. It can even update the timestamp information so that no time is spent per move, as was easily exploited in ICC last year. Task switch blocker cannot prevent it and no winboard is needed, but it would take a lot of time and patience.
They want to raise their points. People use cheats in video games all the time, even though it takes away the challenge of the game. It's no different with chess, they just want to win. Since crafty and winboard are free and take very little time to download, they feel sneeky and skilled as if a hacker just in having the inside knowledge and power. Some already professional players cheat because
Some GMs and IMs have been caught cheating in ICC. Talk of it will get you a threatening tell by the admin to not discuss it. When there's money on the line, whether it be a 5000 euro tournament or competition of private lessons, winning is important.
People do not want to play calculators, if they did, they would just download a free winboard chess engine and get their butt kicked. Whatever happened to learning from our mistakes? If you want to improve with the help of a computer, first play a slow game then do a full computer analysis post mortem. Players obtain a much better understanding of the position and the mistakes made than just watching a turbo predict-a-move challenge.
See the best places to play online chess table and decide for yourself. Think twice before picking those that allow winboard. ICC can be a great site but it can also be a big frustration. It was funny when smart guy 2700 Nigel Short claimed he was playing the elusive Bobby Fischer in speed chess who was brilliantly using obscure openings to win, when it was really a ICC fischer hoax by canadian networking expert. Stick to the people you know there. Playchess.com has an active engine browsing through low rated games in case someone decides to play a perfect game the first 30 moves. This engine is turned off for titled and high rated games though.