Cheating

If I am playing a correspondence game and I study the theory for the opening with analysis board am I cheating? example: if I play the Caro khan and they play the fantasy variation. Some moves in (which is some days later) I start to wonder what the opening is. I watch some videos on it and use analysis board to learn the opening for both sides (because I like what they are getting in the game) I end up losing the game anyways but was I cheating? (The example was real except different opening and I didn’t watch videos on the opening).

I wouldn't consider studying the opening while playing a coores game cheating. Eventually, it will stray off from opening theory and into a middle game where you have to choose your moves yourself. Using any type of outside engines would be certainly cheating. I would note this during a coores game, any other game should be just you and the board.

@JFbin85

I agree with @RedHatcc it wouldn't be considered cheating because your opponent may not play the moves that you are studying from the analysis board.

You can use the analysis board and look at the opening database but if you turn on the engine you are cheating. That is the clearly defined line.

As I understand "the old days," in correspondence one could consult chess books and could move pieces around on the board (often a different board). That was it. I think that, later on, resorting to a database like ChessBase to find similar games was even okay. But, among those in the old school, using an analysis engine to evaluate or help choose a move was NOT okay.

I would hope Lichess correspondence would be the same. Is there actually an official set of rules for Lichess Correspondence posted somewhere? I would assume that there is, but I'm waaaayyyy too lazy to hunt for it.