General Discussion

Anyone wanna open up a topic for debate? 

Perhaps kings gambit vs queens gambit

How about chess and music?  I've been wondering if classical music would be conducive to good chess play.  I tend to listen to tv in the background or just other noise..would classical music or non-lyrical music be better or plain silence to help with chess concentration? My personal opinion would be classical or non-lyrical music, calm music, not heavy metal or rock might be helpful.

any opinions?

well I hate heavy metal but I like wienna filharmonic and of course slovenian polka and valcek ... Avsenik - Slak ...

Is it insulting to have a draw offered in a losing position when the game still has a good way to go before its officially designed..piece count only being a pawn difference in points?  I offered a draw to an opponent and he claimed it was insulting!!!!  I've had draws offered to me in a game I was winning and I didn't find it insulting

Any comments?

Rookbuster wrote:

Is it insulting to have a draw offered in a losing position when the game still has a good way to go before its officially designed..piece count only being a pawn difference in points?  I offered a draw to an opponent and he claimed it was insulting!!!!  I've had draws offered to me in a game I was winning and I didn't find it insulting

Any comments?

I think your opponent was going a little far in calling your offer insulting. There's been times when I've been offered a draw in positions that were bad (if not flat our lost) for my opponent, usually in the endgame. I always meet such offers with a polilte "not yet." I don't think I would ever tell my opponent an offer was insulting.

That being said I think a lot of draw offers come too early. My personal policy is to wait until a position is obviously drawn before making an offer. If my opponent is higher rated than myself then I always wait for them to make the offer.

Not insulting at all.  Sometimes throw in a cheeky draw offer myself if I'm in a slightlt inferior position, and chuckle at those from my opponent in the reverse position.

Sometimes its unfortunate that you will come up against the odd idiot every now and again, and like marko i do laugh when my opponent offers a draws when he is in a slightly inferior postion, infact when that happens it usually doubles my concentration to force a win. As for offering draws I do sometimes throw an offer of a draw to see what he/she does, after all just because your opponent is in a slightly better postion, maybe a pawn up, Its not neccessarily enough to force a win and/or your oppoments endgame technique is not up to par with your own. Personally I am happy to accept draws if the game has been a good solid game with plenty of positional play, even when I have a slight advantage, winning isnt everything and I think its more important to learn from the game at hand.