Should I Feel Insulted?

I just played a guy on ICC in the monthly (one game per week) a G-60 tournament. The fellow is rated about 300 points higher then me. It was, I think, a drawn game at around 40 moves. I’ll have to check it on the computer later. I offered a draw but he played it out to over 70 moves. The guy finally blundered when we each had about a minute and 15 seconds left. I think that because my rating is lower, they think they can either run out my clock or that I will blunder first.

Then right after the game he asked me what my real strength is, but left before I could respond. It kind of POs me because I’ve been taking lessons at least twice a month for two years with an IM who is an excellent teacher. I’ve also been playing simuls against my teacher for two years. Playing simuls against him is how I found him for lessons. I was actually temped to let the guy have a draw by allowing my pawn to be captured by his King because with so little time I wasn’t certain I could mate him with Queen and King in about 35 remaining seconds. But he did resign.

I’ve had the same experience in online play. So have others. Statistically, with the number if online games played, upsets are going to happen.

Simply an upset victim expressing frustration upon getting beat here. It happens. The guy ought not get so worked up about online rating points, but we all ought not do certain things

My coach told me this afternoon that he’s played the guy many time in simuls and that he can be stubborn and not agree to draws in drawn positions.

No increment?

This weekend a kid rated ~400 points below me forced me to mate with K+Q+Q vs K. I think I had three pawns and he had one, too. 30 second increment. I was a bit insulted.

Alex Relyea

Playing someone over the board you sometimes get people who force you to play a game all the way to checkmate, based on reports it seems to happen a lot more often online. That’s just the nature of online forums being less personal translating into a chess forum. You need a thick skin to survive in the online world.

No increment.

Maybe he was hoping your connection would drop and he’d escape with a non-rated result or a draw or a win depending on how a disconnect is handled.

ICC’s policy is that if there is a disconnect, you have 15 minutes to reconnect and continue or it’s a loss for the disconnecting player. ICC rated for whatever that may be worth.

Every player has the right to be checkmated. 2 Q’s vs bare king is about the easiest checkmate you can do; I wouldn’t worry about playing it out because you can simply leapfrog your way to victory.

There is nothing sinister about asking someone if they have a OTB rating somewhere.

As far as playing out a draw, I agree everybody has to be allowed to have their choice to play it out to the bitter end.

I think some people just think they should play every game to the conclusion, some maybe where taught to play the game out when they were kids, and others, perhaps, hope that the opponent makes a blunder and loses.

Personally, I just like playing chess, so I don’t care if the game lasts 15 moves, or 85 moves. Plus if someone wants to play out a drawn game to the bitter end, they might end up miscalculating at some point in the next 30 or 40 moves.