"Sportmanship on chess.com"

I give take backs if it's an obvious mouse-slip.  Heck I'll even wait for a while to give them the chance to ask for a take back.

But when I slip up I don't except it, I wait for them to make their move and then I'll resign.  No hard feelings.

If they've been a jerk, I'm no mother Teresa, I'll decline a take back request... that is if they're fast enough to ask for it before I pounce on that piece they just dropped

 Ah yes...the almighty rating points!  More powerful than superman, more alluring than Halle Barry, more intoxicating then crack, the things we will post, the accusations we will make all in the name of the almighty rating points.

Even if your opponent wanted to be fair and let you take back the slipped move, there is no option to do so. All he can do is make some sort of waiting move and wait for you to retreat, but regardless, the position shifts and the game just isn't the same as before. If the damage can't be fixed, the one who caused it is the one who has to deal with it, and that happens to be the slipper.

I guess if you had enough time, you could figure out how to reproduce the original position (unless the slipped move involved a pawn). You may be lucky enough to find that kind of jovial opponent in standard time games, like 30 minutes each. But in blitz?

To expect your opponent to accept that kind of hassle under this kind of time pressure, in a rated game, that's unsportsmanlike. I guess it's ok to ask (provided your opponent isn't in serious time trouble), but you also have to accept a negative answer and resign with grace if the game is lost, not get all mopey about it.

Invest in a better mouse or don't play when tired (that's when my mouse slips happen).

Does anyone remember a discussion that went something like this:

player A said that he had made an unintended move. Would player B agree to rewinding the board to undo the move?

player B agreed - and made a neutral move which meant that he did not take advantage of player A's slip.

player A then made a different move from the one he had proposed - taking advantage of player B's co-operation.

As a direct result, player B lost a major piece. player B was not best pleased.

 I agree that the internet is full of jerks , many of them ruthless no doubt. A chess site will also have its fair share of such people. However , I do not think a chess player who wants to play by the rules should be classified as a ruthless jerk.  Take backs are NOT a part of chess, even if your mouse falls and breaks all its legs. Serious chess players dont ask for , nor grant, take backs except in a teaching/learning game/situation or maybe in a casual game with a friend/relative. To EXPECT someone to grant takebacks is simply wrong and I would classify those who expect takebacks to be granted as the jerks and not those who decline them and wish to play by the rules.

I don't even know what kind of cake you're talking about. Show me a picture of it or something, and I'll tell you how German it actually is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake

http://www.google.hr/images?hl=hr&source=imghp&biw=1024&bih=576&q=german+chocolate+cake&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

"Contrary to popular belief, German chocolate cake did not originate in Germany. Its roots can be traced back to 1852 when Englishman Sam German developed a brand of dark baking chocolate for the American Baker's Chocolate Company. The product, Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate, was named in honor of him.

In 1957, the original recipe for "German's Chocolate Cake" was sent by a Dallas, Texas, homemaker to a local newspaper."

Somehow I had an inkling it would be something like that! Well, if it's that tasty, it's quite a shame we didn't actually come up with it :)

THAT'S a German cake: "Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte". Not sure if it can compete with German Chocolate Cake, but it does look delicious, doesn't it?

I prefer Sachertorte, which comes from Austria, but I wouldn't reject a Schwarzwalder either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachertorte

lol I was just messing around. My main point is that it's expected to "not" be a noble person online as how the thread author wants it. No offense, but you say "however" in your post as if you are taking a disagreeing viewpoint, but in actuality you've agreed with me to a point! My post was full of fluff, sure, but I did make it clear that what the thread author thinks of as a "Jerk" is the norm in online play, but his actions of calling out such player instead makes him a jerk. I also tried to not single out online chess (using 'play' instead), as this goes for a great deal of online games. I enter every online Street Fighter (video game) match expecting to get trolled, just like I enter every chess match not expecting to be forgiven for my mouse-slips.

It most certainly does.  I like the intermediate layer of cherries.  They look like ball bearings, so the top part of the cake could spin around.

mmmmmm . . . schwarzwalder kirschtorte . . . 

I still slip in live chess but when I drop a piece on the wrong square I usually apologize and say "sorry, I didn't mean to move there, but we can finish" I don't expect them to offer a draw but it seems like a sensible thing to do.

I just have to remind myself not to click the piece until i'm ready to move and not to drag it but instead highlight it and the square i want to move to .. even if I've clicked the wrong square because I'm trying to move fast.  I always blame myself, I don't expect mercy from the opponent.  In a real war mistakes happen, you can bet the other side will capitalize on it!

Whats with the discussion on german chocolate cake?

First, in a real OTB turnement, if you clearly drop the piece, you can just make your "real" move. Only if its not an accident, you will have to let it stand.

And i dont think its cheat using mouseslipping. We have to learn, not to mouseslip, and using the mouseslip ruins the game exacly as much as taking a draw.

Mouseslips is a squeaky topic for me.  I ignore all requests for takebacks, regardless the proposed reason, and, for balance, I've never asked for a takeback in my life.  I'd rather lose (and have).  A long time ago I was playing a good friend of mine in an untimed online game and she, a very good player, made an obvious mouseslip.  I asked her if that move was a slip and she admitted as much, but when I asked her to take it back, she refused.  Well, the move was clearly losing, and not wanting to spoil our game, I cajoled her and finally she relented and took it back. Eventually she won the game.  Although losing the game didn't bother me a bit, a certain hostility, or maybe coldness is a better word, developed between us for a while.  I'm not sure why, but the takeback was certainly involved. I tend to believe that takebacks are subversive and an affront to Caissa.

My biggest objection to "takebacks" would be that it creates a situation where everyone has to stop playing and start negotiating.  The game would be ruined pretty much no matter what, because if someone requested a takeback, then you have to stop playing and decide whether or not to allow it, and think about whether the player "deserves" the opportunity to take back.  It's much easier, for both, just to accept it and move on.

I have, however, offered a draw when an obvious mouse slip suddenly changed an obviously losing game to an obvious winning one.

My objection in OTB play, though, is that it is sometimes possible to observe that someone dropped a piece, but it happened to land on a square that would be a legal move.  A person might claim that since the piece was released, it is a legal move, even though they know that it was not the intended move.  My opinion is that forcing the player to make that move would violate both the letter and the spirit of Chess rules.

If you're playing OTB then it's easy too see if your opponent drops a piece or whatever but online it's not easy to believe. For example, you could be in a game where the position is equal and your opponent makes a mistake or blunders and then says "sorry my mouse slipped" and then they good make a stronger move. In fact, they could do that quite alot.

Was this online or live chess? If it was online then change your settings to using "submit move". Then if your mouse "slips", you can make up for it. If it's live, then how is your opponent going to know you haven't blundered?

First, like most people said, mouse slips are part of the game.  Get over it and be more careful in the future.  That is the first of at least three lessons to take from this game.

Second, great opening.  You did a great job keeping up initiative and knocking Black out of his comfort zone.  Your line starting with 5.d6 probably won't hold up to serious scrutiny (5.c4 is the only game in the Master database from that position), but it worked out in this case.  Review the first 20 moves or so of the game and find out where you and Black could have improved.

Third, it looks like you gave up after the mouse slip.  I guess this is understandable, but you have to fight the urge to throw away the game after a mistake.  After all, the other guy can make a blunder or slip too, and you could be back in it.  Were you in time trouble at that point?  When your down in material, you don't want to trade, right?  So why play 26.Bxf6?  Your in a tough spot with the pin on c4, no doubt, but perhaps 26. Na3 would offer a slim ray of hope.

"Was this online or live chess?"

A Live Chess game played privately at Yahoo Chess.  The point is, even when both players are fully aware that a professed mouseslip was indeed a mouselslip, taking back a move, even a totally unintended one, poisons the game.  When a player wins after receiving a takeback, the win is spoiled and the one who lost doesn't really feel he or she has been beaten and if a person loses after a takeback, the loss feels even greater while the winner gets an inflated sense of superiority.  It's best not to even admit a move was a mouseslip and win or lose from the resulting position as if it were intended.

While I fully understand differnet reasons why giving a takeback might seem reasonable, even just, I am just as fully convinced it's a subversive and counter-productive practice.