I know this has probably been said by other users, but I do feel that cheating has increased recently in Classical and Rapid mode. Sadly, it's not just new accounts who cheat and get quickly banned.
I've observed that some players with 2000 rating and 8 years on Lichess played many games with 99% accuracy and less than 10 average centipawn loss against 1900-2000 players. The most plausible explanation here is cheating.
My hypothesis is that rising global inflation and political instability have made people more selfish and desperate, therefore they cheat against strangers online to make up with their failure in real life.
It's definitely increasing, that's very true. Why? Your reasoning is as good as any - can't say that I disagree at all. In the aggregate, people are getting worse, much worse.
You're right, there are so many cheaters in rapid/classical, and most of them are not new on lichess ; moreover they "know" how to cheat (they often activate their engines only once they're losing). That's why blitz is less frustrating (fewer cheaters, faster games).
@SeanRR I blame rock music and marijuana
It depends on the nature of the game. A 2000 can easily get 99% accuracy playing 1. e4 trappy openings if black blunders in the opening and the blunders people make are repetitive.
I can't believe that many people cheat. Why would they? How can you have any fun copying an engine move into your game?
Perhaps they like a big number next to their Lichess name. How is that satisfying? No, I can only imagine that a small minority with problems would cheat unless of course there was money to be made from it.
Not everyone who beats you at chess is cheating.
I was banned because the mods thought i cheated and not really, how do I ask them to correct it? I only play fall and sometimes very well because I know a lot of theory
Here is a game i played with 99% accuracy (no inaccuracies, mistakes, or blunders). It is possible even if you are not that strong. Click the 3 vertical dots below the board and select 'view on lichess' to see that statistics.
One game with this accuracy is no evidence of cheating. However a long string of games that all maintain 99% accuracy against strong players would be rather eye-brow raising and you might consider reporting it to lichess (not in the forum). My personal experience is that most don't cheat.
In that game white did not cheat, black just played very bad. If this was very sharp game with a lot of places you can make mistake, it would be much more different, that game was just lost after 5 moves.
