Wednesday 16 February 2022

A moral dilemma

Whilst we wait for Mark's no doubt upcoming double match report, I thought I would raise a question about a game I played yesterday (for a non-Kenilworth club I hasten to add, though I hope I'll be forgiven for that). The scoresheet up until people had too little time to record is below, but the game itself is of less interest than the final couple of minutes - suffice to say I got slowly outplayed throughout the game, until we ended up in an endgame which white is going to win, but will take a decent number of moves to do so (rook, bishop and pawn versus rook and pawn). Also important to note that this game was played with 90 minutes for both sides, and no increment (which is a terrible time control, but that is a different point).

What ultimately happened is my opponent got a decent chunk of the way towards winning, but then contrived to lose on time, and my questions are twofold:

1) Should I have let him? In principle, I could have offered a draw when he got down to a few seconds, since I'm clearly never going to win by any other means. I think probably there is something of a consensus in the community about this, namely that since my opponent is in a much stronger position I shouldn't be offering him draws, and it is his responsibility to do so when he decides he doesn't have enough time to win. You could definitely make arguments against that, but I think probably most people would say that is the correct approach.

2) The more interesting question then seems to be what should I do if he offers me a draw with a few seconds left. The extra context is that if we win this game we win the match, whilst if I lose or draw we lose the match, so in principle I can just decline the draw, shuffle a few more moves and unless he finds a way to force my rook off I will win on time, but is that an acceptable thing to do? I don't know what the result would be decided as if he formally claimed a draw under the quickplay finish rules - seems a situation that is right on the borderline of whether it would be declared a draw or not. I think probably I would have accepted a draw, even if he was just about to lose on time, given the position, but in a team match would that have been the correct decision?

Answers on a postcode please, then bring that postcard along then next time I see you and tell me what you have written on it.

Anyway, another glorious high quality victory, and on to the next round (we are still on course to play Kenilworth in the final, if we both win our next matches).

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