Originally posted by Thabtos
...playing 800+ games with only 3-4 losses seems kind of suspect to me. Everybody has bad days.
Everyone has bad days, indeed. And even the best makes mistakes, sometimes outright blunders. So you're right to be sceptical of single figure losses in 800+ games, even from 400+ games in here.
Why? Well, quite simply, even in the absence of any other evidence, one knows from those banned that some players use engines. By obvious deduction, they will be among the more highly-rated players. So it follows that those who are also highly rated, myself included, must have met
and beaten engines on the way up. So if your losses are in single figures, and your draws few too, after >100 games, you must be beating engines pretty regularly. Now that simply isn't possible.
Engines can be held sometimes by a competent, well-tutored player; occasionally beaten too if the engine is in the hands of a weak player. I've managed both, aided by good fortune in some cases. But there is no possibility in here that, unaided and taking opponents as they come, one can rack up >400 games, achieve a high rating, and concede only a handful of losses.