Question regarding Draw Offer

In an ongoing game I was offered a "Draw". I was made aware of that by way of an e-mail rather than being on the game at that time. When I clicked the "Go to the game" link in that e-mail and was brought to the game I did not see any way to accept the draw offer. I then clicked on the "Offer Draw" link at the game thinking that there was a glitch in the system.

The person who had originally offered the draw now declined my offer.

I was confused at that point and asked the person what was going on. He stated that he had changed his mind about his draw offer and wanted to continue play.

My question is: Is there a rule or protocol governing a situation like this.

Thanks.

The rule is once a a draw offer has been made, it cannot be withdrawn.  You can then accept or decline.  If you accept, it is a draw.  The player should not be able to change his mind about a draw until after you make a decision to accept the draw or decline by making a move.

A claim of a draw first counts as an offer of a draw, and the opponent may accept the draw without the arbiter examining the claim. Once a claim or draw offer has been made, it cannot be withdrawn. If the claim is verified or the draw offer accepted, the game is over. Otherwise, the offer or claim is nullified and the game continues; the draw offer is no longer in effect.

Perhaps you made a move, before you saw the email, so the draw offer was automatically declined, maybe a conditional move.

Clutching at straws, it is also possible you have your board so large the button to accept is off-screen?

Thank you both for your responses. It is possible that I made a move before I saw the e-mail, I really don't know for sure. I guess my thought is that if you make a draw offer you should stand by your decision. Just my opinion though. :-)

 I don't have the board so large that the button to accept the draw is off-screen.

harry

Well, if you made a move that changed the position enough for your opponent to rethink whether he was actually willing to settle for a draw there's no reason he should be obligated to stand by a draw offer that was made in a different position.

It is certainly possible that that may have happened, I just don't have a clear recall of the event(s). In any event life goes on. :-)

a draw offer by email is not valid.  only the 'draw offer' in the game - by clicking on the button for 'offer draw'  ... is the only valid way of offering a legitimate draw in correspondence (turn-based) chess.

regards,

It's likely that the e-mail referred to was the automatic alert generated by the formal draw offer being made in the game.

@TheGrobe

Yes, the e-mail was the automatic alert generated by the formal draw offer.

The moral of the story is you should refresh/reload the game web page immediately before making your move. That will reveal any draw offer that has been made while you were thinking.

Thanks for all your replies. I may have missed the draw offer as DarkPhobos suggested.