Why don't people reply to draw requests? (And other thoughts)
Submitted by on Mon, 08/10/2009 at 5:56am.
Yesterday Summer seemed to have returned at last and me and Pasha the Turk were playing chess in a park off London Road. Sun, beer, chess and the company of good friends - it was the perfect Sunday. Things continued to be good and, as the evening drew in, it was off to see Tony G and play Xiangqi and have yet more beer. We sat on his balcony, fourteen floors up, overlooking the city.
I got home late after a marathon stint of mindsports.
Now, I was recently playing a game where I had a one pawn advantage and yet was precariously close to losing. It seemed that all my aggressive options risked calamity for me. So despite there being many surviving pieces on the board I offered my opponent a draw.
Now it annoys me that most people don't even respond to draw requests. A polite refusal would be good. But more often than not draw requests are met with stony silence.
Anyway, two moves later I delivered a crushing blow that forced checkmate in three moves. And I really had to use some willpower not to gloat and type, "bet you wish you'd accepted that draw now!"
The chat system on chess.com is quite interesting. I have noticed that virtually no one uses text-speak, people don't usually talk inane rubbish and there is an amazing amount of politeness and absolutely no abuse. I pointed this out to my friend Eric and he said, "What do you expect man? They're chess players."