Absurd Draw Offers

Ok, so twice now in my last 6 games, i've gotten a lead through good playing and then the person who is losing constantly asks for draws. It's rude and somewhat insulting as well as annoying. so these people are assuming that i'm either a complete idiot or that i'll just throw away a hard earned lead. No i won't and they shouldn't be such sore losers that they can't take a fair loss. Is there anyway to stop this, and is anyone else having a problem with this?

There are three ways to handle pests:

1. ignore (probably the only way to extinguish the behavior in the long run)
2. tell after the first draw request that you will not accept their request and will ignore all future draw requests
3. refuse to play them in the future

I think it could be reasonably set up that only 1 draw offer could be outstanding. That is, once a draw offer is made, it's "good" until either it's accepted or manually withdrawn. While it's "good", no other draw offers could be tendered, eliminating repeated requests and the opponent could accept it at any point. Then a limit, of perhaps 3,  could be put on how many draws could be offered and withdrawn throughout a game.

I had the same thing happen, only my opponent was new and didn't even intend to finish the game and tried to get a draw after only 3 moves. In fact there are a lot of users who come on and bloat the statistics by getting into a game or more and just leave after 1 or 2 moves. Maybe some kind of probationary period could be implemented to weed out those who signed up just for the sake of signing up and then split. It also makes the stats inaccurate with regard to a players true performance against other real chessplayers.

kbcbishop wrote:

There are three ways to handle pests:

ignore (probably the only way to extinguish the behavior in the long run)tell after the first draw request that you will not accept their request and will ignore all future draw requestsrefuse to play them in the future

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That's good. I do refuse to play anyone who keeps asking for a draw when they are losing. ignoring it is the best option, especially when some goes to the extreme of disabling the chat, messaging, and note features (therefore cutting off all communication to them).

If you are someone who does ask for draws when you are losing, man (or woman) up and take the loss instead of whining.

I agree with majority of what has been said , but what also annoys me is when someone repeatedly declines a draw when the position is clearly drawn . For example R&K vs R&K . They are happy to play a meaningless 50 moves just in case you slip ( which is almost impossible to do ) . Both asking for a draw when clearly losing and refusing to draw a dead game is both rude.

e) agrees with all the above

batgirl wrote: I think it could be reasonably set up that only 1 draw offer could be outstanding. That is, once a draw offer is made, it's "good" until either it's accepted or manually withdrawn. While it's "good", no other draw offers could be tendered, eliminating repeated requests and the opponent could accept it at any point. Then a limit, of perhaps 3,  could be put on how many draws could be offered and withdrawn throughout a game.

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That's a good idea, I do see one downside to allowing a draw offer to be outstanding. Say we're both playing, and you've got me in a bad spot...so I offer a draw looking for the easy way out. You ignore it and resume play. Let's say that I somehow turn the tables and now I'm at a clear lead, except that the draw request is still active you so accept. I realize the rebutal to this is that "it's my fault for issuing the draw offer anyway", since that's what I originally wanted. Would it be more favourable for players at a great disadvantage to be unable to offer a draw until the game is tighter? Say maybe within 3 points?

 

darkpawn, based on what batgirl said, you could withdraw the offer when the tables turned. There might still be the possibility that you offer a draw, your opponent blunders badly and then accepts the draw before you get a chance to withdraw it.

The point is, to me, once you offer a draw and your opponent moves, you can withdraw it. We are chess players, strategical thinkers, I'm sure it isn't beyond such people to understand the danger of leaving a draw offer outstanding. My suggestion is really to make a draw offer a significant and serious undertaking and  something not to be used as an annoyance.  For that to happen, their must be consequences. The alternative might be to have the draw offer automatically nullify if the opponent moves without accepting, but sometimes, in a genuine situation, one side may want to make a few more moves to clarify things better before accepting the draw. But whatever the system, it seems this problem can easily be reduced through the software alone.

Of course not naming your games things like "Only play if you'll stay online to finish!" and then sending IMs saying "MOVE!" might be a good way for you not to have people do unsportsmanlike things like offer draws when they're losing. It also might prevent things like the person making the game last forever in hopes that you will either consider the draw the easiest way of getting rid of the annoying person or you'll move on to other things and time out. Sometimes its worth losing 6 pts just to be done with a game that at this point is going to last 3 months out of spite. I mean, there are some people on here who don't care what their rating is and will just hang onto a K versus the entire back row just to be the ant at the company picnic. The key is to be a good sport at ALL times not just when on the winning team. Just my two cents and member point #296...

Too funny.

Dude, it's not really a big deal....you said it happened twice...that's 2 mouse clicks, not so much effort on your part to deal with it. Complain about something else please. I wasted more of my reading your pointless complaint than you did rejecting their draw offer.

if you turn off chat in games do you still get the draw offers ?

If so can you turn off draw offers in some way?

 

Even after turning off chat, you will receive draw offers. Though, there is an option, while in game, to turn off draw offers for that particular game.

thanks for that info nklristic

 

You're welcome.