tournament etiquette?

hey, ill be playing in my first tournament soon, and i have some questions. if an opponant forgets to hit their clock after they move, should i tell them or let their time run down? also, if im in an obvious draw position (Q v Q with no pawns for example), but my opponant is low on time, should i accept the draw or play until his time runs out?

No.

Play down his time.

Managing your time is just as important as managing your pieces.

I've never played in a tournament, but I think if I noticed my opponent forget to hit their clock I'd just sit there analyzing the position and thinking about my next move on their time.  I wouldn't expect someone to remind me if I forgot to hit the clock.

You don't have to tell them. I don't know what I would do. I would probably mention it once if they do it several times, just as a courtesy and to get it off my mind.

The other depends on the time control. In a blitz tournament (say max 5 minutes), it's about the clock, so beating someone on time in Q v Q is acceptable. In longer time controls it's definitely against etiquette to play for a win on the clock in such situations. In general if you only play for a win on the clock in a longer sudden death time control, the opponent can claim a draw anyway.

I've had my opponent forget on a number of occassions. The way I handle it is to ignore it. I don't spend extra time grinding down his clock, I just take however much time I need, then I move and reach for the clock as if to press it. Thinking about it too much is a distraction.

In some situations it's fine to try to win on time, but with only Q+K vs. Q+K it's best to give it a rest and take the draw. 

I always give them one wrning if it is in the first few moves, after one warning I do what JamieKowalski does and press the clock hen I am ready to move regardless of whether they did or not. If they arer under 30 min then i let their time run

depends on how much time they have, 3 seconds yes play it down, 10 minutes, not so much

I agree to a certain extent that time is a factor. However, say for example the position is likely a draw but you have 20 minutes on your clock, and the opponent has 5minutes...is it really a drawn position?

You obviously managed your time much better than he did and deserve the win for doing so.

OTB is about your time as much as your pieces. If your opponent was down a piece, you wouldn't consider it good etiquette to offer a draw. Why would you think the same if he is in time trouble? I say take the time advantage you have earned and grind him down to a loss.

I would think most OTB tournaments would have an increment though. In that situation it's just a draw.

Having played almost 2100 OTB tournament games, I can tell you the answers to all of it.  Long story short is, take all advantage of your opponent, but don't be sneer about it.

As for not hitting the clock, I'll simply analyze the position until he does, even if it's an obvious recapture.  I'll spend his extra time planning subsequent moves.  It's not your fault that he didn't hit the clock.

As for your Q vs Q scenario, just take the draw, for the following reasons:
1) Assuming you are playing in the United States, USCF rules state that Black has choice of equipment.  However, if White has a delay clock, and Black has an analog clock, White gets to use his delay clock.  With 5 second delay, the player with a lower amount of time in KQ vs KQ (no pawns, no immediate skewer) can easily make moves within the delay time.
2) If you are using an analog clock, your opponent can stop the clock once he's below 2 minutes in the sudden death time control, and get a director, and claim Insufficient Losing Chances.  Keep in mind, this doesn't mean the position is drawn, so don't try to claim this with a Rook and 6 pawns each.  The rule states that if a 1400 player can CLEARLY, EASILY draw a GM, then the claim is granted.  If not, the claimer is penalized 1 minute.  KQ vs KQ is a blatant draw.  Same thing goes for KR vs KR.
3) Since tournaments are set up so there are no shinanigans like the BS you see here, you might as well take the extra time between rounds to relax, eat comfortably rather than rushing, and be ready for the following round.  The bullsh*t that you see here where you have a rook and opponent has a rook and 3 pawns but only 17 seconds will never work over the board.  Don't use that mentality of throwing away pieces, thinking that some slight complication will cause him to lose on time.  If you are down a pawn in say, R+3P vs R+2P, fight for the draw like as if both players had 2 hours left on their clocks.

All the more reason why I say that a player with an OTB rating of 2081 and chess.com rating of 1750ish (i.e. myself) is lightyears stronger than someone that can pull off some 2100 chess.com Blitz rating but can't get past the 1600s over the board.  All that means is they can move a mouse faster and run people out of time.  Once again, that process doesn't work over the board unless the position is super-complicated, so don't even think about it!  If that's your mentality, change it now before you go to this tournament!

You don't have to say anything about their clock.  I usually take an extra long turn, analyzing everything I could want, but then when there's nothing else to do I'll go ahead and make the move.  If they had just a few minutes left I'd wait for them to notice and only move immediately after they saw it.

You can't play for a win on time in an obviously drawn position like K+Q vs K+Q.  The opponent should simply stop the clock and claim a draw.  If you disagree then he should go to the tournament director to make a claim "insufficient losing chances."  Notice if he asks for a draw (instead of claiming it), you can ignore him and keep moving (but it's bad sportsmanship IMO).

Same for 3 fold repetition.  If he asks "draw?" you can ignore him and keep moving.  If he stops the clock and says "draw" then the game is over.

Thanks both Thrillerfan and Waffle....I didn't know that and it makes my point moot.

Yes, if you play a 5 minute game with the same mindset for quality that you would in a tournament game then it will easily cost you a few hundred points.  In fact not only is this time trouble phase added, but endgames are almost completely removed.  Tournament games are indeed very different.

Tournaments are very focused on endgame OTB. Online people resignearly, OTB its rare, so winning close endgames, or even winning endgames is both more important and more challenging

If it's my friend or somebody i know very well,I tell them that they haven't pressed their clock.I know nobody is ur friend while playing a game but i dont like them whining and complaining that i won due to time.When im not playing against my friends,i usually dont bother and just take my time to move.

Tournament chess can be a brutal experience.  If my opponent forgets to hit his clock, I do not remind him.  Hopefully after he has lost a few games because of time trouble he/she will remember.  I make my opponents strictly adhere to the touch move rule and every other tournament rule.  

Definitely make the stick to touch move rule. I once played a game where my opponent touched a piece, then stopped and thought for ten more minutes. After the ten minutes, he tried to move another piece, but I reminded him of the touch, and he had to move it anyway. I don't know if he was hoping I would forget in that time, but I wasn't about to let him get away with it.

I just wait until the opponent presses the clock and try to figure out what my opponent is trying to do.

One time at a World Open chess tournament my opponent touched a piece which if moved would have lost the game for him.  I told him he had to move it.  He then lied about touching it.  I immediately called a tournament hall monitor and told him that he had touched that piece.  He lied again about it, but the players to the left and right of us also saw him touch it.  The tournament Ref. told him he had to move it, which in that position, lost him the game.  Instead of moving it, he flung the chess pieces around the board and stormed off.  Tournament chess is deadly serious.  The players must realize that we are there to win BY THE RULES and we do not coddle our opponents.  Most if not all the players at the World Open Chess events have paid well over $1000 to be there in fees and travel expenses and we are looking to win.  Make no mistake about it.

I think after that touch move rule game, I began telling my opponents before the game began in a friendly manner that I adhere to all chess rules strictly especially the touch move rule so there would be no misunderstanding.  

Why even tell them this?  It's not your job to make sure they know the rules.  I have made 3-fold repetition claims in positions where I'm either barely holding on, or lost, and have had opponents be outraged because they didn't even know that 3-fold repetition is a draw.

Also, many of those that know of the existence of the rule don't understand the rule fully.  For example, if the White King is on e2, and the Black King on e7, assuming there's a few other pieces on the board, if the game goes 1.Ke3 Ke6 2.Ke2 Ke7 3.Ke3 Ke6 4.Kd2 Ke7 5.Ke2, this is NOT 3-fold repetition because it has to be 3 occurrances of the same position WITH THE SAME PLAYER TO MOVE, that player have the SAME LEGAL OPTIONS.  So if say, on the first occurrance, he could have take en passant, but declined to, and the players toggle back and forth once, it's not 2-fold yet, it's still only 1-fold because this time, the player can't play en passant, the time before, he could!

You go to a tournament, it's your job to know what you are doing and what the rules are, not mine!