Sandbagging - what is it?

If in a tournament, like warzone, I (~1350) get paired against the top dog of the tournament, and I quick-resign (to play against some people that I have chances of beating). Is that sandbagging?

It does help the top dog, but the intention is for me to get a winnable game.

I would not do this if I get paired against a 1500 player, I'm talking about a player who has 1000 points more than me.

I love chess cube and respect his rules so, I apologize if I sandbagging by mistake. It happen when there is no chance to win atournament so, I resign in the remaining matches.
I think many users doing this so, good luck in catching them and thanx for all chess moderators.

It's not whether you win or lose, but how you played the game that counts. Just because you may not be able to win first place doesn't mean you should just resign your remaining games and quit. There is second place, third place, etc., and that is worth trying for. By quitting games, you are losing the opportunity to learn and improve your game. Never just quit your games, as there is no benefit or lesson in that. By quitting games, you are also allowing others to win that maybe shouldn't have. Quitting games totally skews the results of the matches and it's not fair to other players as well. Quitting is also not displaying good sportsmanship, which is one of the things chess is about.

dear sir

i am physician who loves to play chess at your site during my breaktime and when theres no patient, i may be accused of sandbagging because when i join tournaments i failed to finish or withdraw at some points because patients would come in, in the process i lost many times or will not be able to continue the tournaments. Hoping that my account will be reactivated. God bless and good day!!

ChessCube has been cracking down on users who have been found to have sandbagged in order to win Cubits in games, and Crowns in Tournaments. We've seen many users get back to us after being banned - stating that they were not aware that what they were doing was against our Acceptable Usage Policy.

So, just to make it clear, here are a few points:

What is sandbagging?
Wikipedia defines sandbagging as:
"Sandbagging (chess, Go, billiards or other such games), a player deliberately lowers his competitive rating, in order to play in a future event with a lower rating and consequently have a better chance to win."

Where does ChessCube mention that sandbagging is not allowed?
In our Acceptable Usage Policy, section 3, point 6:
"you cannot assist others by deliberately losing for whatever reason, including to boost their rating."

This sentence covers self-playing, Cubit transferring, rating transferring, or the intention of sandbagging (to lose rating points deliberately).

Sandbaggers that are active in ChessCube ruin the experience of honest players. So we are cracking down very heavily on this form of cheating - as this is best for the community.

Remember, you can report sandbaggers and any other form of cheaters to fairplay@chesscube.com.

More useful links:
Cheat Bounty - Report Cheats & Get Rewarded! - viewtopic.php?f=8&t=672
Bans for cheating - Country list - viewtopic.php?f=8&t=420

Thanks,
-Sean

What if someone rated 1500, for example, does not log on chesscube for several years? During that time, the player studies a lot of chess strategies and, when he logs back on, he plays like a 2000? Wouldn't it be unfair to ban that player?

What if someone rated 1500, for example, does not log on chesscube for several years? During that time, the player studies a lot of chess strategies and, when he logs back on, he plays like a 2000? Wouldn't it be unfair to ban that player?

well really a good question..but i think to ban someone's account..it is really a long process..first of all admin checks the game data of that user..if admin found some suspected things..after that admin banned the account..

My VIP account "madkillerdog" was banned for sandbagging. I wasn't even sandbagging. I entered alot of the VIP tournaments to get my level up. Can I get it back?

My VIP account "madkillerdog" was banned for sandbagging. I wasn't even sandbagging. I entered alot of the VIP tournaments to get my level up. Can I get it back?

Hi madkillerdog,

I just checked your game history. You were entering tournaments and playing them for few moves and were resigning them. That is not acceptable. That is considered as cheating, If you join tournaments then you gotta play them and we ban users for this kind of a reason.

Thanks,

Nirmit

I sent this email some days ago.
Still no reply...
________________________________________
Hello ChessCube,
I'm hash and I received a message indicating that I was banned for sandbagging to lower players.
Actually I accidentally entered a tournament I didn't want to enter (maybe something like chess960 blitz), I tried to play one or two games but I had to resign because in the meantime I was also playing in another tournament and even on another chess site, so I resigned all the matches not to let my opponents wait for me while I was playing elsewhere.
Can you please tell me something more?
Thank you
________________________________________

Any possibility of having my account back?
I didn't even imagine some people can think of losing a crown-tournament and their rating, in order to have better opportunities in a cubits-tournament like I did without having the intention of doing it.
Furthermore the site DOES NOT GIVE THE POSSIBILITY OR RETIRING FROM A TOURNAMENT: that's why I resigned all the games.
Help me, or at least, listen to me this last time.

Thank you.

I agree with the more warning idea.

I used to be a sandbagger. I would usually make a few thousand cubits per day and have over 30K cubits most of the time. I think it is too easy sandbagging on this site without having your account closed. I adjusted my method after my first account got closed. I don't want to tell the details here because obviously I don't want to encourage anyone.

If I was continuing sandbagging and there was a warning message that says that you are suspecting sundbagging and that you will monitor my account closely, I think this would seriously discourage me.

I think one of the site admins posted above and said that more warning messages is not necessary. I strongly disagree. I think there should be a permanent toolbar type warning message that stays there for a week.