Throwing Tourney Game to Help Opponent

So here's one that I haven't seen explicitly discussed. 

How ethical or unethical do you consider it to be do go ahead and resign or accept a draw when you have a superior position, at the request of your opponent who, if they lose, will get knocked out of a tournament?

I have only been on the site for a few months but this happened in one of my first tourneys.  I had been generally crushed and was not going to advance, but had one game where I had the upper hand.  My opponent begged me to resign because it would enable him to advance.  Because I had no chance in the tourney, I didn't give it much thought and resigned, thinking I was being Mr. Nice Guy.  (Already I find myself wanting to apologize to all players for this).

Now it has happened again.  This is a tournament where I will advance.  I have a game I am clearly winning, but I advance whether I win or not.  My opponent is begging me for a draw so that he, too, can advance.  Now I realize that of course if I do this, some player who earned their way to advance will get knocked out.  So for a tournament with tie breaks, clearly unethical, like throwing a boxing match.

But what if it is a not tie-break tournament and nobody gets knocked out by me allowing this player to advance?  Needless to say I have thus far said "no" but I am taking a lot of heat from my opponent. 

I am interested in everybody's thoughts on this...and am even wondering if it is a 'reportable' offense since it can clearly deny players who have earned a spot.

Tell 'em to shove it and drag the game out as long as possible.

I think it's wrong to throw a game for any reason. Some players will say anything to not lose. How fair is it to the players in the tournament, including yourself, who advanced on merit. Some people might say that sometimes Grandmasters draw on purpose, but many people are critical of this as well.

I think it's reportable as "fixing results". This hurts rating accuracy and tournament fairness. Even in a no-tie-break tournament tourney, this does disadvantage players who are honest. If you think about it, everyone could fix their matches so that everyone advances, but then we'd be playing round one over and over again for eternity.

Furthermore, it's not like getting "kicked out of tournament" is a life-destroying expirience. It takes about ten seconds to join a different one.

If you're "taking heat from your opponent", it's not because you did something wrong. Keep that in mind. Block chat for the remainder of the game and report him for poor sportmanship (match fixing and verbal abuse).

 +1

It could be classed as match fixing, and we know what thats done to the sport of cricket recently, report him.

I agree with all of the above.  A large part of sports and games is playing "spoiler."  Once in a round robin format tournament of table tennis I had no chance of making first place and my final opponent was from my club.  He needed to beat me to make first place.  I didn't care that I liked him or didn't like him.  I played to win and spoil him because he was my current opponent... and I did.  And to add sweetness to victory, his skill level was slightly better than mine.  Again, I didn't care who he was.  If I was playing his first place opponent instead, I would have played just as hard.  So, I recommend you just block or ignore him and report him if he gets insulting, and play to win.  If you go for a draw, it should be because the situation dictates it, not because of doing your opponent a favor, which then becomes a disfavor to HIS opponent for tournament position.

I have read that this happens at the highest levels in Chess. I don't know if it is true or not; I would hope not.

But no, it is not ethical. It is not fair to the other players and it is not fair to yourself. Aside from ethics, I'm fairly certain it is against Chess.com rules and could get someone banned for doing so. It really is just another form of cheating, as noted by just about everyone already.

Do not throw the game.  And if you look at it from a purely selfish perspective also, if you win and he is eliminated, that is one fewer player you are competing against for top places.

I consider this as cheating , sorry !

If he continues to annoy you, disable chat. 

The thing is, if you are winning, then unless it is a hard to win position, i dont see a point in simply throwing the game away. Like what m_connors said, it is not fair to youself simply throw the game away because of a few words as it definitely would have taken effort on your part to achieve that winning position on the board.

It is certainly ethically wrong to do so because, like you said, the other players that actually earned their spot would now have to face an unfairly created round or grouping.

If your ethics aren't in line with this, then at least understand that it would have an impact on your own personal rating.

If that is something you don't mind, then what else is there really?

 It absolutely is a form of cheating. It is collusion against the field. It is especially bad if there is a real, tangible prize to be won.

Consider this: If you deliberately throw away a winning game so that your opponent can advance in a tournament, you are screwing someone else out of the tournament spot they had legitimately earned. Someone else would have honestly eared the tournament spot that you donated to your whining opponent. So what you did was not fair play. In an individual game, you can do what you want--it's just between you and your opponent. But in a tournament, your actions affect other people, so you should play for an honest result 

West Germany vs Austria, World Cup 1982 'The disgrace of Gijon'.