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I’ve been playing CC since 1959 and have played opponents rated all the way up to GM (both OTB and CC). So of course I’ve run into engine users since they first appeared. As mentioned earlier any experienced player will know when they are playing an engine but in many cases there may be some doubt. Different engines will give different move selections and different evaluations. Another factor involved is how long engines are allowed to think.
Engines can be beaten by players with sufficient ability and knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. Just look at any CC tournament of CC masters and GM’s where engine use is acceptable. You will see players who lose most of their games despite having strong engines as “helpers.” Like it or not engine use is here to stay and frankly, there is not much to be done about it.
The best approach if you suspect you’re playing one is to play carefully and at all costs avoid tactical situations and head for an ending. Not too long ago I had an opponent rated 2100 who reached a won R&P ending against me. Unfortunately for him he was not strong enough to realize until too late that his engine-generated moves, which were a meaningless series of checks and R moves, were allowing my K to approach my passed P and escort it to a Q.
The best advice is don’t worry about them. At the lower levels those players will advance quickly and at some point, when their rating gets high enough, will start playing at a level where they will be meeting other engine users. At some point they will reach a limit because they will begin playing opponent’s who can handle engines. I know losses to these players cost rating points, but server ratings are meaningless anyway. I’ve also discovered nobody cares about my games or rating except me so an occasional loss and drop in rating is pretty unimportant in the overall scheme of things.
For some of us engine use is totally destroying the game though. My official CC rating is around 2100 which means probably half my opponents use engines and at higher levels it’s closer to 100%. That means the days are pretty much gone when I can experience the satisfaction of playing a good game and possibly defeating a strong master in CC play. I tried a site that allows engine use but found play to be boring and not to my taste as I’m not good enough to excel at “enhanced chess,” as it’s called. So it is with some reluctance that I have decided to give up correspondence chess  ; bunny bashing low rated players and losing to engines at the higher ratings just isn’t enjoyable.But until you reach the level where most all of your opponents are using engines, forget about them and enjoy the game.
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For the record…
I found these matchup rate stats for the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match on another site. One must assume that if these two great players had such a modest rate when compared to Fritz that it’s highly unlikely most players would do better. Although when Hans Berliner won the world CC Championship years ago I seem to remember reading some place that his matchup rate was higher even though computers were not a factor in those days.
Fritz 11 @ 30 seconds per move
Pentium 4 2.93GHz 1GB RAM
Result:
Fischer
Top 1 Match: (58,5% )
Top 2 Match: (77,4% )
Top 3 Match: (85,6% )
Spassky
Top 1 Match: (56,0% )
Top 2 Match: (70,2% )
Top 3 Match: (79,9% )
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Fritz 11 is pretty weak, then 
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dear all, I know and really hope that everybody remember it that chess software are prohibited on this site. That’s the main reason for my newly affiliation here. I regularly play in ASIGC and ICCF (using legally chess software assistance) and the point now… is that I’m boring (and losing) a little bit. In this regard I completely agree with Odie_Spud’s idea.
We have a good chance here on QA to arrange a good way (it doesn’t matter if it is really the best, from a chess point of view) of playing chess… by ourself: let’s play (without engine, of course)!
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You make some valid points. During my experiment playing in a tournament where engine assistance is allowed I arrived at a position where I got the following engine analysis output after about 20 minutes. This wasn’t the first time I experienced this situation and had to decide on the move on my own so I know just using an engine won’t guarantee success.
Rybka
1. = (0.00) 14.a5
2. = (0.00) 14.b6
3. = (-0.05) 14.Ra3
Chess Tiger
1. = (0.14) 14.Re1
2. =/+ (-0.54) 14.bxa6
3. =/+ (0.68) 14.b6
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