Would you take the draw?

If you were playing an 800 in a tournament game, blundered a piece and then the 800 soon after taking it offered you a draw, what would you do?

Under normal circumstances psychologically I would probably want to take the draw. It would be absolutely hideous to for me to lose, not even draw, an 800, especially because you were "pushing for a win" (as many people do when they have an EDGE) in a position where you were completely lost! But I think there are plenty of reasons to not take the draw, because 800s are very unstable and it would probably be quite hard for them to convert a whole piece into a win, especially without blundering anything else like a pawn which would, for them, make the win exponentially more difficult, and yes it's probably not unrealistic for them to self destruct and reverse the correct result. But I would hate it if they actually did convert the win so I figure if you lost a piece and can get a draw out of it that's a pretty nice deal.

However, in this particular tournament it's the last round, and if you win you get a ton of money, if you draw you get a decent amount, but if you lose you barely miss out on the prizes and get nothing. You have also been playing 6 hard games before to get into a position to win the tournament. I still don't know what I would do in that situation.

An 800 would most likely give your piece back, and even if not, there would be good chances of reaching an ending he/she doesn't know how to win etc. A 2000~player should be able to give 800 rated players piece odds anyway. I'm not sure if I'm 2000~ OTBwise but I'd certainly play on.

I think it's just that I'm uncomfortable with the idea of refusing a draw in a clear loss, even when it's against an 800. I like to think of chess more as a science, and it's psychologically difficult for me to play on just because of ratings. But in reality I wouldn't be suprised if playing on would give much better results in the long run. However, for me it's not about the long run, it's about never ever losing to an 800.

I think I probably could too most of the time, but it would suck if I turned down the draw and lost.

800s are pretty bad though I think... (maybe I'm forgetting just how bad) a better question is at what opponent rating would you take the draw.

Good for you, but thats not the question.

Honestly, I would play on and go for it all. I'll never really go anywhere with my chess career and if I had a chance to win a tournament and get some great money out of it, no matter the odds, I'm playing all the way through. Whats life (and chess) without a few risks?

Hmm, well two things come to mind here.

1. How would you end up playing an 800 in the final round of a tournament you are winning?

2. No, I would play on. In the first round of my first tournament I played a 650 or so (I left the tournament with a 1330 rating). His play was strange and hard to predict. I was excited to play and underestimated him. He really backed me into a corner. He had initiative, space, material, everything in his favor, until he gave me his queen.

So play on, money is the last thing I would care about in life or a tourney, that's just me though.

That's an interesting aproach....

But a genuine 800? I'd play on, and I'm nowhere near your rating.

Well this did not really happen. I got the idea for this thread loosely based on something that happened to me, but most of it is completely different.

I just really wouldn't want to lose to an 800. Remember this would probably be a one time situation, not a question of which is better in the long run, because I think playing on is. This would only be one time, if you lost that would be embarrasing, damaging to your rating, and that 800, which you may never see, may not play you again and lose the next time he's way up in material.

In my experience sometimes really weak players (I haven't really played 800s though, I was just throwing that number out there) drop pieces like flies. However, sometimes they really don't because they didn't get a big enough chance to blunder yet. If the 800 can do that and simplify I think he has a chance of converting the material. More likely than not you'll get at least a draw anyway, but sometimes they can suprise you and I wouldn't want to take the risk, even if it's only like a 20% risk.

What about a 1000 guys? This is a little closer to what happened to me (there was no draw offer, and I went on to win, but he was extremely close to winning and I was getting desperate. It was just a live game.) After what I went through, I would almost always accept it.

Actually, it might depend on at what point in the game the blunder occurred (and the decision might change with the rating difference). If I dropped the piece early with most of the rest of the material still on the board, I'd play on. If somehow he had survived deep into the middlegame and I dropped a piece late, I might consider the draw. If I could see the irrefutable winning line for my opponent, I might take the draw before he had the chance to find it. I'd still be plenty embarrassed, though.

Well, 800's are pretty bad. You're looking at a former one right here, and i've barely improved. There was a time when someone(rating around 1300) blundered a rook against me, I took it, and they got it right back. However, a personal decision for me would be to take the draw, being so close to 800.

I just finished a game against a 1500+. They blundered their QUEEN against me, and they still won. Check out my  games archive. So looking at all your ratings, I would decline the draw if I were you, but take it if I were me.

The problem is I don't know how many times I could crush an 800 piece down; I don't have much experience playing 800s to help my decision; in fact, I've probably played very few in my life. I could assume I would have similar results to you, but I think I would have to see it to believe it. If I did, then the choice would be obvious.

What do you mean by an '800' player?  If you are talking about Chess.com rating then I would definately play on as long as the position was still relatively complicated.  You would be foolish to decline a draw in an endgame for instance where he had a Rook and you didn't (assuming pawns were moderately even).  Being down a Bishop out of the opening though is a different story!

'800' OTB and I would definately take the draw.  In my country a player of that level is not a strong player but in the vast majority of cases will still convert a win.  This is especially true if they are a junior as their true playing strength is much higher than 800.  I would snap his hand off quickly if he offered a draw.

On the other hand I would hope to never find myself in that position.

Who is a 800? FIDE rating floor starts at 1200 (and I haven't seen one in my life).

The floor for the USCF is 100.

The OP situation does not make sense--how you you be playing an 800 player (assuming) you are stronger in the last round with lots of money at stake. That would imply that the 800 players is much stronger than his rating.

Having said that USCF OTB anything under 1200 a piece is probably not going to lose by itself unless it is in the ending. So in this unrealistic situation I would probably play on.

I once blundered away a knight and a bishop in a friendly game against a guy I would have estimated to be <1000 in rating.

I still beat him.

800 OTB, definitley not chess.com ratings!

"The OP situation does not make sense--how you you be playing an 800 player (assuming) you are stronger in the last round with lots of money at stake. That would imply that the 800 players is much stronger than his rating."

It's unrealistic, but I think it makes discussion interesting, which is all I wanted. We are assuming the 800 rating does reflect his strength.

Well, people rated hundreds of points below me CC seem pretty confident they could win, so in a similar situation maybe I shouldn't be so scared (of course even if I was in this situation draw offers still are rarely made in the way I'm describing, though I have seen it happen in simuls and they get accepted. But the players winning in a simul are usually much more capable of converting an advantage like a piece as long as their tactics and endgames are decent to not give the piece back. Plus, guys holding simuls if they blunder are probably happy to get a draw just to reduce their games.)? As people said, it can depend on at what point in the game. I think it would be much more risky to play on if the blunder was in the middle or end of the game (with less room to get the material back) than in the beginning.

Depends on the position, although I admit it would have to be pretty bad for me to accept the draw ie a simple win in an endgame.  Of course the earlier it is in the game the smaller your chance of losing, but even in an endgame where there is still some play it would be very difficult for the 800 player to win.

Depending on how much better than their rating they played during the game I would be more willing to accept it, if their actual strength was 800 then going a piece down vs them is not nearly as bad as going a pawn down vs a peer.

If you refuse the draw then you also get a huge psycological advantage!