Dirty OTB Tricks I

I can understand the frustration, but you are blaming him for being tricky/shady.  That i dont agree with since you did not bother to go back to the board and see what move he had made.  You jumped at a chance for a easy draw against a higher rated opponent, but think he was being shady.  Ultimately it was your responsibility.

 So, why do you think he didnt wait for me to come back to the board and then offer the draw? This is the normal thing to do and this is how all my opponents in more than 35 years of chess have done it. It is also how I always do it, I never hunt a guy down to offer him a draw, I simply wait for him to come back to the board. You dont agree that the reason he did it that way was in hopes that I wouldnt go back and see what he played first ? You dont agree that he KNEW I wouldnt accept the draw if I saw he had played a bad move ? If you dont think that then please tell me why you think he hunted me down to offer the draw? Have you ever offered a draw like that or been offred one like that ?

Ofcourse it was Rebs responsibility, everything he does is his responsibility, it was however, still a shady thing to do.

Good story Reb, made me laugh at least. I haven't played in a tournament but have been caught out myself a few times similarly to this in other things. 

I think we share a common trait, a belief that people are generally fair, even though we've both been proven wrong 

Well, you certainly did the right thing honourably, but the "right" thing... no you should have kept playing

 Yes, my brother once told me my biggest problem is that I think everyone is like me , and they are not.

Reb, you made the honorable move. Had you not, that would have been a much dirtier trick than the one your opponent pulled on you.

Thanks for sharing!

Personally, I believe you were swindled into a draw.  It is honorable to accept his draw offer after the handshake, despite how underhanded it may have been.  It's a good learning experience, if nothing else.

In my years as a Chess player, I've seen far worse underhanded tactics than that, from my own team nonetheless.  I participated in the Illinois High School State tournament as 8th board for the team, with an opponent who preferred to use as much time as feasibly possible for each of his moves.  So, as you can imagine, I had a lot of time to walk around and observe my teammate's boards.  Unsurprisingly, each board seemed very promising for the team.  All but the 1st board's.  Our captain, John, was in a nasty situation and was running out of options.

In a desperate attempt, he mumbled out the words, "Would you like a d...dr..dr..".  The opponent smiled and finished for him, "draw?"  To which John triumphantly responded, "I accept."  According to IHSA rules, even saying the word "Draw" is a draw offer.  The game was announced a draw on the spot, and we had to jump between John and his opponent to prevent John from getting the absolute crap beaten out of him. 

Thought I'd share my experience with tricky OTB tactics.

That is highly unfortunate for you. It was unquestionably low and dirty behavior, but you made the right decision to honor your acceptance of the draw. I am all for honor and respect.

-Gerik

 Any arbiter who doesn't rule sensibly in cases such as these is a complete idiot. Yes, the rules are there, but to be interpreted sensibly.

 I had a situation like this in my last tournament. I had an unstoppable passed pawn so my opponent let the last 30 minutes of his clock run.

I didn't get offended however as (a) I sacrificed a rook and pawn to get eventual queen and I would have still had to avoid some obvious traps and (b) a point is a point whether received on time or a handshake.

 Agreed...we need to quit dumbing things down for people.  Rules are in place for a reason.  Loosening rules up because some dont understand doesnt hold people accountable, and only increases blame storming and excuse making.

 Ah, yes, sorry. Never let common sense intervene. I forget that's how the world works these days. If someone's stuttering and you say the word for them, just get real. Give me a break.

That's why there is an arbiter. So he can decide on what is best in the situation, and doesn't have to blindly follow the rules.

We don't "start to allow", it's always been that way.

This is from the preface of the Laws of Chess:

The Laws of Chess cannot cover all possible situations that may arise during a game, nor can they regulate all administrative questions. Where cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the Laws, it should be possible to reach a correct decision by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the Laws. The Laws assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound judgement and absolute objectivity. Too detailed a rule might deprive the arbiter of his freedom of judgement and thus prevent him from finding the solution to a problem dictated by fairness, logic and special factors.

In this case I'd not only let them play on, but also give the guy a stern warning. But I'm not an arbiter yet.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about whether or not my FM opponent had, in fact, made his move before offering me the draw. He had made his move and it was bad, probably even losing. He ralized this apparently after making the move and thats why he hunted me down to offer me the draw away from the board. I am sure he knew I wouldnt accept after seeing his move and I wouldnt have. He figured his only chance was I would accept the draw without going back to the board and seeing his move first. He was right and I was nuts for not checking his move first. The reason I didnt I have mentioned earler : 1 ) I was so sure he would find the right move, afterall he was a FM over 2400 at the time and 2) before the game started I already had it in my head that a draw would be a good result for me.  I did learn a valuable lesson from this event though and wont ever make the same mistake again.

Maybe I am just ignorant because I haven't played a lot of otb official tournaments.  But, how was his act devious? 

The only devious action as I see it was what you were thinking about (but decided against justly I think).

Edit...I read a few posts back and I can understand what you are saying.  However, I still don't think there is anything wrong with what he did(unless it broke a rule I don't know about).  I just see it as silly mistake for you to not go back and look at the board. 

You did right by honoring your word/handshake; whether your opponent's actions were or not honorable shouldn't worry you at all. You learned something important from your mistake, so maybe you should just thank him and go on (without forgetting).

It would be great if OTB points were due to strong chess moves and nothing else, but unfortunately some other down-to-earth factors must be taken into account. Take the nasty case of Dirty John, for example.

Thank you very much for sharing.

 It was "devious" in that this is not the "accepted/normal" way to offer a draw. The normal/accepted way is to make draw offers at the board. Its not against any rule that I know of, but there are many things that rules can't cover.

this one guy totaly did this trick to me whenever we played he moved the knight over to the edge and than goes oooo and tried to grab it and so i go no you can't than he goes oh no ...i thought i could just grab it and so i did but than he checkmated me next. he made such a fuss and i fell for it!!! well at lease i didn't have to go to the toilet for a drink of water!!!