This is simply not okay behaviour. 😤

From this point of view both players were trolling each other ~350 last moves

Also - side point - chess.com may have a slight bug here. At the bottom of the game I’ve posted there’s an (i) info icon, which says that the game ended in a draw after the 50 move rule, which clearly isn’t the case…

Same exact thing happened here (tho less ridiculous:

Is this something someone with a strong online presence did in a game and is now a trend or smth? I’ve been on the site since 2021 and no-one’s ever done this to me before.

Chess.com, if this isn’t against the sportsmanship policy, can I ask why??

I think it is equal sportsmanship (or lack thereof) by both players. You both knew that checkmate was easy with the queen and rook and you both chose to play another hundred moves. I like increment and exclusively play with increment, but if you prefer to play like this then perhaps switch from 3+2 to 5+0 or 3+0.

So 5 days later both players were trolling each other ~120 last moves

I’ve addressed this earlier in the chain - but there’s a difference to me between playing till checkmate in case of stalemate or timeout, and having checkmate on the board and deliberately prolonging the game. The player who’s losing has every right to make the person prove they know how to checkmate (particularly at lower levels) and has nothing to lose by playing on. My mentality has always been that in these situations where there’s a chance that by trolling they accidentally stalemate or violate a draw condition like 50-move rule, that there’s no downside to continuing.

But someone deliberately avoiding checkmate serves no in-game purpose except to troll. Or potentially to mask their accuracy if they were acting unfairly elsewhere in the game (note - do not think that’s the case here, but it’s possible).

OP, your entire existence was violated by your opponent's behavior. This goes further than anything CC can do. By prolonging the game, your opponent violated your basic human rights! You should report this to your local police department and also to the United Nations. You have a case that should be heard at the Hague. Please take this trivial game of chess, where you also behaved like a half baked troll, to the highest levels of authority. Never quit, either on the board, or in the court of human decency!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why did your opponent prolong it to 400 moves, that’s just wasting their own time, I personally promote to a bishop then a knight and then give away all other pieces to flex the bishop and knight mate

Bud, as funny as this is, your time might be better served attempting to improve your own chess, rather than offering your opinion here. At 600 elo, I would be genuinely unsurprised if you would struggle to checkmate with King and Queen, in which case I’d say that there’s probably thousands of instances where your opponent should force you to prove you can checkmate. This isn’t meant to be offensive, just illustrating the point.

(note - particularly pertinent considering your most recent blitz loss you attempted to deliver checkmate but hung your queen instead. I know blitz is tough for everyone and mistakes happen, but there’s a reason why never resigning can pay off)

Exactly - that’s at least a cool way of trolling, and actually unironically helping you practice a niche and sometimes technically challenging checkmate technique. Wandering the king around like these two did is pointless.

If it was unacceptable behavior then why did you so willingly accept it for so many moves? You knew you were in a lost position. Your plan was to let them blunder into a stalemate. When your plan didn't work you came here to whine about how unacceptable their behavior was.

If unacceptable then resign,
If acceptable don't whine.

I agree. It doesn't seem like anyone did anything against the rules, as it takes two players to make a game last that long. Both had something to prove. Both agreed to play on.

I think the OPs opponent displayed bad sportsmanship by extending the game. I think the OP displayed poor judgement in engaging him. In the end the OP was right (and wrong) and the opponent was right (and wrong). They both got what they wanted, a long game. The OP got the chance of a draw and the opponent got the chance to prolong the game because of no resignation.

#29 I know how to queen and king mate and my elo isn't that far off his

I’m pleased to hear it but it’s unfortunately true that there are plenty of players even rated higher than yourself who don’t know how to do that mate consistently.

You’re right, I didn’t need to engage, some of it was being stubborn. That said, considering I had essentially no other legal moves, I did just premove it a tonne and let it run while I did other things.

You should expect that kind of degeneracy from someone who puts lightning in his username

At some point I was definitely staying on out of morbid curiosity

Re #26: it's online chess; the outcome doesn't really matter, you know? The downside of continuing is the same as the downside of trolling: a waste of your time.

The amount of mate in ones, twos and stalemates they missed is crazy.