Dots and boxes games 753017 and 754445 are the same. I conclude that luke = 654 and I have been duped into beating deadfly. That's probably the last time I accept an unsolicited and unrated challenge.

wccanard

Yes I remarked that people asking for unrated games are usually not very talkative nor interested in the game. This might be an explanation, wrong application of your great MiM theory.

Other examples: game 757176 (Loic Boisnier vs luke) is the same

as game 757837 (654 vs gej) and game 754446 (wccanard vs 654)

is the same as 753020 (luke vs belen).

Thank goodness GWG/EinStein/Dvonn are a random starting grid (and EWN involves a die), otherwise RoRoRo could trivially be so duped as well.

Can I inquire how you discovered the MitM? Do you download records of all boxes games for archival purposes? It might be prudent to do this for other exploitable games too if so.

*Complete* coincidence! A new dots and boxes monthly cup has just started: dots.mc.2007.sep.1.2 . I looked at who had entered and I saw Deadfly amongst the entrants. I had noticed before that he had beaten both Trevor Green and jennifer recently, and neither of these people are pushovers in dots and boxes, so I clicked on Deadfly's recent dots games to see how he was doing. Indeed, it seemed that Deadfly was good. He had now won 17 and lost only three. I wondered who had taken games off him. Arno and jennifer—not a surprise—both are strong—and luke. I thought I'd take a look at the luke v Deadfly game to see how luke had beaten him—and I saw a game that I recognised and indeed had spent a good hour or so thinking about myself—it *was* my unrated game against 654!

[Of course, that last post was the reply to FatPhil's question.]

On August 7, 2007, lokomotiv noticed Ryan playing man in the middle in Hex 13x13 games 738754 and 738747. http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/forum/topic2.jsp?forum=50&topic=285

The oddest thing about it is that after Ryan resigned 738754 against lokomotiv, he erred someplace and also lost 738747 against your humble servant.

Four-in-a-row games 759842 and 759875 are the same too (one with luke and one with 654), so it's not just dots. I'm sure that any avid detective could find more, but I have enough proof now. A few days ago I declined an unrated challenge from another “random” userid so 654 might not be the only one of luke's aliases.

I note that both luke and 654 are on vacation at the minute…

wcc

Well, if it is right what you say (and i think you are right) then luke cheats in “Ein Stein würfelt nicht” too. Look here:

http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/tournament/tournament.jsp?trnid=einstein.mc.2007.jul.1.66

I think all these accounts are lukes. May be also frank, fye, sil,…

Look to all lukes tournaments he won in Jun., Jul., Aug. all are cheated.

“Shame on you! Why are you doing such nonsense? Are you keen on highscores?

How poor must a character be to behave in such a way.”

Look to: http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/forum/topic2.jsp?forum=140&topic=45

The same player?

also

http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/tournament/tournament.jsp?trnid=einstein.mc.2007.aug.1.20

look at fye's decisive blunder:

http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/game/game.jsp?gid=753381&nmove=88

also suspect:

http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/game/game.jsp?gid=753382&nmove=15

That's a bit sad. Luke's not a bad EinStein player at all. His record against RoRoRo is 6:9 in RoRoRo's favour. According to the table in Ed's FAQ, that would put him at about 50 ratings points behind RoRoR, so still well into the 1800s.

Maybe he's got Ben Johnson syndrome, the lure of the gold is just too strong?

However, he can only gets a boost in the _ratings_ with such a cheat, he won't get much advantage in tournaments from sock-puppetry, as he'll not have the sock-puppets to support him beyond the first round. (Unlike in the other, deterministic, games where MitM can always be used against unwitting grandmasters.)

I don´t think that he were in the 1800, because in all the tournaments he pushed himself with his second (robert # 13686) and more accounts. But he is “not a bad EinStein player at all.” Thats right.

I see what you mean. Quite a “friendly” little group of players signing up for MCs at the same time.

einstein.mc.2007.jun.1.61       8 / 4   winner   over js / neseinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.6        8 / 4   winner   over js / nes /       fyeeinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.14       6 / 4            over js / nes /       fyeeinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.29       8 / 4   winner   over js / nes / robeinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.41       8 / 4   winner   over js / nes / rob / derekeinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.44       8 / 4   winner   over js / nes / rob / frankeinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.52       8 / 4   winner   over      nes / rob / derekeinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.55       8 / 4   winner   over      nes / rob / frankeinstein.mc.2007.jul.1.66       8 / 4   winner   over js / nes / rob / 654einstein.mc.2007.aug.1.20       8 / 4   winner   over js /       rob / fye / sil

That's a lot of undeserved ratings points if they're all sock-puppets, which is the Ockham-approved conclusion.

If you play the game to increase your skill, for enjoyment, and realize there will always be players better than you, then what's the difference if someone cheats? If you lose to X through luke playing MITM, is it worse than if some genius from Azerbaijan had signed up for LG and defeated you?

I agree that luke's not doing himself any good with his treachery.

> he'll not have the sock-puppets to support him beyond the first round

With enough phony identities, he can also get a boost in the second round. But the number of identities required increases exponentially with the number of rounds.

I know I sometimes 'resign' a frame just to get the next one on its way, but does anyone else think this is more than a little suicidal, almost as if fye were doing his best to help luke win?

And again, later in the match

Maybe luke isn't as good as I thought, if he has to employ professional palookas like that.

thrice

In future, games played between identical players will be not rated.

what do u mean “identical players” richard?

@Richard: Thanks! it's nice to know that you're reading :-)

Yeah, but that also excludes people living together who share the same IP address from playing rated games against each other. Maybe that's good, though, for my marriage!

Bump

Time travel, Cheaters

All nothing in the grand scheme

Go write some Haiku :-)

I think you're in the wrong thread, Robert :-)