You could make it out of the plastic cap of a 2-liter bottle and place it over your opponent’s clock button.
I like Howlett’s improvement on my original idea. Yes, notating the move and so forth with the Draw offer would stop most of the abuse something like this could see.
I also like the idea of the bottle caps on the opponent’s clock button. The only problem with this is that chess clock’s have such different shapes and sizes of buttons that this would be impossible with the bottle cap on a DGT with rocker arms, of a Saitek with the large rectangular buttons or even the Excalibur and the Chronos Touch with the larger round buttons.
I do like the idea though of putting the Draw notice on or covering the opponent’s button as this will inevitably be noticed sooner or later.
What about the following situation? A position is an obvious draw but I am low on time. I want to make a draw offer but after he/she makes their move, they get up from the board (for whatever reason). I can’t make my offer cuz my opponent is not at the board. Since I cannot make a draw offer, if my flag falls, do I lose? Obviously, he/she doesn’t have to accept the offer, and I’m not talking about accepting or decling, but making the offer to an opponent who is not there. What to do?
Thanks.
Can’t you make the draw offer and hit your clock? When the opponent returns to the board tell him that a draw offer has been extended and is waiting on his decision.
In this instance a physical draw offer sign or placard would do the job.
In this situation, I suggest making your move on the board. Then, summon a TD (and stop both clocks if a TD is not immediately available) and inform the TD you are offering your opponent a draw. The TD should then start your opponent’s clock.
A player should not be forced to have his clock continue to run waiting for an absent opponent to return to extend an offer of a draw.
I’m not sure I see the problem. You have to make your move anyway before offering the draw. Ideally you should make your move, offer the draw and then press your clock, but the draw offer is still valid if you press the clock first. In the case you describe, make your move and offer a draw when he gets back.
Furthermore, it is possible to lose on time after making a draw offer even if your opponent is at the board. If you make your move, then offer a draw, then your time expires, then you press the clock, your opponent can still claim a win on time.
It is also possible to win on time after making a draw offer. If you make your move, offer the draw, and press the clock, and then your opponent’s time expires, you can claim a win on time even though you have offered a draw.
Bill Smythe
If you can believe this, this past Saturday I had my first draw offer ever while wearing headphones. I heard what sounded like my opponent mumbling something, then I glanced at him and he was looking me right in the eyes. I then removed the headphones and gestured (raised eyebrows) and he offered again. How something this simple hadn’t happened in 20 years couldn’t tell you.
Now there is some discussion going on in the stlchess.com forum regarding whether or not headphones are illegal in larger prize fund CCA events.
I couldn’t remember the exact wording of the ‘special rule’ regarding headphone usage, so I looked it up on chesstour.com for the North American Open:
After reading this several times, I noticed that some clarification is needed, as this can be understood more than one way. I took it as you can’t do any of these things without a director’s permission. They may be saying that you can’t do the first 3 at all (my apologies to our hearing impaired players), and can only do the 4th with a TD’s permission… hmmm.
Crossed index fingers –
In scholastic events when a kid wants to signal to his Mom across a large room that a game just ended in a draw he or she will usually hold up both hands with crossed index fingers.
One can hold crossed index fingers low over the board and the earphoned player should instantly realize a draw has been offered. That’s the way we do it in Oklahoma… and have for years.
That should be in the next rulebook. 