I used to play chess against 5 people at once in high school.  I had a system where I create a "horseshoe" of desks and I walked in the middle of them.

 I only played the person at the apex of the horseshoe, and the other 4 I just copied their moves so they were actually playing themselves.  I hope that makes sense.  To this day I am amazed nobody figured out what I was doing.

 I learned later that chess masters literally memorized strategies, which is why computers can beat most of them now.  I wonder how well the memorized strategies work in this online interaction.