I would like to propose extending account with verification in first step and more after.
There are some GM and IM that has verified accounts. If every lichess user could verify his account by FIDE / USCF profile then we would have great opportunities to take lichess to next level.
1. It would be step to limit cheaters. But one person could have only ONE verified account.
2. In future new features only for verified accounts:
- free tournaments
- online FIDE / USCF / (maybe local like country only?) etc.. tournaments (blitz, rapid and maybe even classical)(cheating will effect with banning people from real tournament too for some time)
- tournaments with entry fee and money awards
Integrating with FIDE / USCF profile has a lot of pros:
- you need to play in real life to gain FIDE / USCF ranking
- by playing in real FIDE / USCF tournament you are verifing your identity
What do you think? Is it technical possible?
In my opinion there are a lot of people who dont have FIDE profile. They want only run lichess and play some games. It will be huge inconveniance if everyone has to verify his account. Even worse, people will stop playing at lichess.
My idea is extending lichess with verification. People still will be able to play games and turnaments as today.
There will be NEW tournaments for only verified accounts (visible only for verified users).
Everyone who play chess more serious has no problem to gain FIDE profile (maybe USCF or some else) as we have a lot of FIDE tournaments in a whole world.
absolutely no way.
if anything in that direction ever happens, it's most likely going to be way less extreme, like phone verification. that said, i still personally believe it goes against the spirit of the site.
another european plant trying to discredit USCF .
But no, not going to happen.
Phone verification is bad in this case, because one person can have unlimited phones.
And you can have only one FIDE profile.
Oh, it can be USCF as well. It just idea.
Lichess should never restrict accounts based on verification. Furthermore, we aren't FIDE and don't use FIDE rules.
Also, real-world authentication (proof of identity) is a difficult problem. Some people for security purposes need to remain anonymous.
It's not about restriction. It's about extending account and allowing to play in cash / real world rating tournaments.
You right, lichess is not FIDE. Maybe better word will be integration. If you cheat online you should be banned also in real life chess events. But to do this we need to find some way to identify people.
People who need to stay anonymous never play in real-world tournaments, so they can stay anonymous and play free tournaments for fun as they do that today.
I think there are other sites that attempted this. I don't recall any of them getting anywhere.
"It's not about restriction. It's about extending account..."
We can argue semantics, but at the end of the day all registered Lichess users (who haven't violated the terms of service) should have the same ability. I argue that limiting tournaments to players who have played >= N rated games already violates that spirit... but we would never exclude registered users from any feature of Lichess.
There is already a FIDE Online Arena server where you can play FIDE rated games. If a FIDE rating is so important to you, you should play there, no?
"If you cheat online you should be banned also in real life chess events."
Good luck telling FIDE and all its national organizations to abide by your new rule, I guess. Also consider that impersonation is possible online, so your new rule could cause you to get banned in real life chess through no fault of your own.
