Okay, I'm playing an online (not live) game. My opponent has played poorly and made some mistakes. I'm up a queen and two rooks vs. a queen. He blunders and I trap his queen, forcing an exchange of queen for rook. So in one move, by force, I'll be up a queen and a rook, vs. nothing.

What does my opponent do? Of course -- offers a draw!

All I could do was politely decline ("Sorry, I can't consider a draw in this position") at which point he resigned.

Personally, I don't criticise players for playing on in a bad position. And I don't  call this draw offer a grievous insult, but I can't help thinking it was, well, discourteous. Does anyone agree or disagree?

Yeah, it's unsportsmanlike, but seeing as he offered it only once, then promply resigned, I wouldn't think too much about it.

Maybe he hit the button by mistake?

i 100% agree with you!! The only time i accepted a draw in that situation was when i was playing this one guy on live chess and he claimed his wife was upset and had to go.  He asked for a draw and i accepted even though i was winning.  He might have been lying, but he might not have been. I personally think its very sportsmanlike to resign out of respect for my opponents playing ability.

Ppl who lose on time with a clearly lost position after offering a draw are losers who put way too much emphasis on ratings and not improving. When your beat your beat, use it as a learning oportunity and move on.

Ppl who refuse to accept a draw when its rook+king vs rook+king and play on until move 100 are an embarassment to the sport. Its way worse on live chess, i find ppl under 1250 and over 1100 are the most risky. Although i beat a 1450(which i dont do all too often) today and he let 7 minutes run down instead of resigning.

The draw offer was, at the very least, dumb... It was obviously going to be refused... If it would have been repeated endlessly (and it has happened, trust me :P) then THAT would have been discourteous.. :)

Dont' mind it and keep on enjoying the game, mate :D

Obviously, I would consider it rude. Mattdearle is totally right. The goal of this site is to improve you game, not worry about your rating. However, that does not mean take no heed to your rating.

Why would it be considered rude?

It's not rude, it's unsportsmanlike. They're just sore losers, but it's not necessarily insulting.

i would suspect he was joking, being in such an untenable situation. I've done this myself when my situation was ridiculously hopeless.

no...

If someone did that to me in an OTB setting (and was actually serious!), I would not play him again. It is very rude.

i find this acceptable (even if useless) because he only offered the draw once.  Had he offered it repeatedly, then it would have been rude.

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Isn't unsportsmanlike behaviour just a specific flavour of rude? 

I used the words "rude" and "discourteous" -- even though I'm not sure if they're exactly correct. I felt mildly put off: was he implying I didn't know how to win a won game?

I think a draw should be a draw -- a tie, an even position, a standoff. And that's not what this position was, considering I had an overwhelming material superiority.

My uncle offers me draws regularly when he gets into trouble while playing against me.  He thinks it's funny.  If someone I didn't know, though, pulled that, I wouldn't think too highly of him.  I, though, have never had much tolerance for practical jokes.

I agree with thegrobe concerning the characteristics of unsportsmanlike behavior.

These topics astound me. If you must ask then maybe... But I guess the other say it better eh?