I simply don’t understand where is the joy of the game to these players who use a chess engine when they play chess online. The win is not theirs at all. It is achieved by the engine and even more you have cheated against an opponent who probably has expected a fair game of chess online from you.
I have to be honest and say that it has happened to me too, especially at correspondence chess online games and I struggle with my conscience every time. If I have to go deeper in what pushes me to use a chess software when I play correspondence chess online games (it has happened only few times) it was not the idea of winning, but the curiosity to know if I made the correct move or it was a bad one.
Many times I play the move I am thinking about before checking it with the chess engine even when the machine tells me that it is a wrong move. I recall now a game when I was in winning endgame and I was so eager to check if I made the correct winning move that I checked it with my computer. It gave me that I would make a bad move and it suggested the correct continuation for this chess online game I was playing at that moment. I made the move, given by the computer and offered a draw to my opponent, even in a winning position and told him what I’d done.
The funny part here is that if I had checked a bit deeper in that position I would have found the right continuation by myself, because it was not such a difficult move.
So, the main point – curiosity is my biggest temptation to use chess programs when I play a game of chess online and this is something I really have to fight with.