Re these questions:
There is a built-in feature of a 'scratch board' in correspondence but not in puzzles or live games. By scratch board, I mean you have a physical board or an analysis board where you move pieces around to see things, but of course the engine is off.
Definitely, this is cheating in OTB. I talk more about this below. However, many things are allowed for online that aren't allowed OTB eg drawing arrows, pre-moves, auto promotions to queen, auto punches of clock, keyboard extensions (formerly), etc.
Here's my pitch for live games:
Scratch boards tell you only what you think. They just help you see more clearly. With scratch boards, everything is from your thinking only. You're just externalising your thinking. I don't think they're any different from calculators in poker (but not GTO solvers - that's outright using an engine) that tell you your hand strength.
In response to the above question, I don't think scratch boards actually help for calculating. I believe this is just to limit the number things that players bring to the playing area for security measures and to reduce distractions. If it were really helpful, then we could argue that Wesley So's 'writing notes' could really be helpful. You can look up the rationale for the 'writing notes' thing. It's not definitely not about being helpful. Similarly, in in-person poker games, my suspicion is they won't allow writing notes eg to calculate hand strength for reasons other than 'it's helpful.'
The following is whataboutism, but they even allow time management extensions, which I think are much worse because:
- They're not built-in.
- Like evaluation bar cheating, the extension tells you what another player thinks (namely a machine for evaluation bar cheating and an automated process based on real time information for the time management extensions).
And here's another whataboutism:
- You can even refer to opening books in correspondence. Again, this is worse because they're telling what you another player thinks (namely the geek/nerd who came up with the opening variation you're playing).
Actually, here are 2 things that distinguish scratch boards, and even like arrows if those ever get removed, from a time management extension:
I think statistics (evaluation, move times, etc) are completely useless to determine if someone 'cheated' by using a scratch board or arrows. But I believe you can detect time management extension cheating like how you can detect evaluation bar cheating & even the regular telling-you-moves cheating.
Scratch boards & arrows I believe won't help superGMs. Same as poker: I don't believe poker calculators (but not GTO solvers) would help poker pro's. But time management extensions would!
Question: How are scratch boards cheating/unethical, in particular while time management extensions & opening books are allowed/ethical?
