Etiquette question

Hi all--quick question;

I'm playing a game with an opponent.  After a magnificent series of blunders, I notice the game may be in a drawn position.  I don't say anything, and continue to play.

About 10 moves later, my opponent and I, via chat, agree that the game SHOULD have been drawn awhile ago.  So despite this, he decided to play on as well.

The game has since become tilted well into my favor (My King + Rook vs. his King + Pawn).  It is clear I am about to win if I don't somehow stalemate it.

Only now, however, has a draw been seriously offered by my opponent.  

I don't believe the game will draw now, but we have both verbally acknowledged that perhaps it should have been drawn several moves ago.  AFTER this conversation, he has offered me a draw. 

Rating aside (I don't think I will lose or gain points, we are pretty evenly rated), what do you think is the "gentlemanly" thing to do here?  We both think it was drawn awhile ago, but thanks to blunders (not skill if it was truly drawn, right?) I have been lucky enough to have the advantage now.  Do I still accept the draw or should I play on?

If this were a tournament for blood, I would not accept the draw at all, but I wonder what you guys would do? 

Thanks and happy chessing!

--Matt

If it is no longer a drawn position , then you have no obligation to accept the draw. You can politely decline the draw and play on. That is my opinion for what it is worth.

agree 

If youre winning then play the game out to the end.

                           Go for it!

You can always make the excuse that you need the practice in end-game play if you feel guilty about it for some reason.

So by mentioning it was previously a draw to you, you're obligated to give him draw odds (in a sense)?  No way.  You win.

Wait til you run across "chat and repeated draw offer guy"  This is the guy that continually tries to draw you into a chat to distract you from the game, and will then send repeated draw offers, and if all that fails and you win, you then get bombarded with cuss words.

Is this an ongoing game?  If so, I don't think it's appropriate to be discussing any aspect regarding what is still to come.  Even if it's not directly linked to strategy and only concerned with etiquette, the point of concern still determines the outcome of the game.  Maybe this is OK, but I think it's straddling the line.  JMO though.

This is a good point.  I initiated the conversation, but I felt it was something known.  I said something like "I think this game was a draw 10 moves ago."  He said he thought about offering back then, and we continued to play. 

Like I said, this is (still) a friendly match that I'm trying to win.  I've said things before like "that was close!" or complimented them for nailing me with a combination i didn't see, etc... basically giving them something to the effect of the trophies you can pass out at the end of the game-- but I don't know if I ever tried to influence the game.  I feel like I influenced it here. 

Incidentally I'm a fencer, and I've joked with an opponent during a timeout, and I felt like it had a negative effect on my effort to beat him.  Hmm. 

Good responses guys, thanks!

How would you feel if this guy offered you a draw if you were losing at this point?

If there is someone who was impolite in this game it was your opponent.

He has a lost endgame and offered a draw!!

If you opponent is an attractive member of the opposite sex, accept the draw.

I'm sure anything you've discussed with your opponent during the game is fine.  It's discussing an ongoing game with other people that we're sensitive about-- most players on chess.com are very careful not to discuss any aspect of an ongoing game in the forums unless it is something unrelated to the play, or maybe a specific move or position that happened earlier in the game and now would not affect how the game progresses from this point forward.

The taboo is obviously because no one should be obtaining playing advice from other people, which you were not doing here, but this topic does deal with the course of the game from this point forward, and so should be left until after the game has completed.

It was his mistake to not more insistently suggest a draw earlier, so he relaxed and made mistakes. In a friendly game, especially if you're sitting across from one another, I'd take the draw even if I were ahead. But honestly, if he continued playing and began to lose, he shouldn't have suggested it.

 ^this, at least if it was OTB and they are single. :P

In my opinion, but playing on and not offering a draw earlier, your opponent took the risk that he may lose.  And in this case the worst case happened for him.  It would be an injustice to let him get away with a draw

Umm, I think he was kidding guys (?)

Other than common sense, I mean, why not ask, this has nothing to do with analysing a specific position.  It's the same as general position research such as if you're in a R endgame picking up one of Nunn's books.

Could be.  I wasn't, though-- the OP asked advice directly related to whether an ongoing game will end as a draw or a win.  How could an outcome be more affected than that, even if no points of strategy are involved?

Well, I guess it was in relation to a specific game situation so it may be wrong.  Like you said earlier this is kinda on the line, I'd think it's ok myself though

Random question from a new chess player.

On these long games that are ongoing, I assume you are referring to chess where you play a move and the next player has several hours or days to play his response to that move?  What keeps players from putting the current board position into a chess simulator, determining the best move, and coming back and playing that?  It doesn't seem like rating would mean much if this is the case.  

Sorry if this is unrelated to the current situation.