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Subject: Re: Manners and Etiquette in Chess (the Tieviekov incident)

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 06:43:55 05/16/00

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On May 16, 2000 at 07:34:15, Frederic Friedel wrote:

>On May 16, 2000 at 06:06:32, Adrien Regimbald wrote:
>
>>Fritz' operator should not have made a draw offer in that position.
>>Technically, the operator has no right to have any interaction at the board that
>>is not directed by the program - ie. the operator can't offer a draw unless the
>>program somehow indicates that it wants to offer one.
>>
>>Offering a draw in such circumstances is in extremely poor chess manners.
>>Making a draw offer in a losing position when your opponent is in time trouble
>>is not generally considered an honourable thing to do - if you wish to be
>>honourable in such a position, you aknowledge that you've been beaten by your
>>opponent and resign.
>>
>>To make matters worse - offering a draw in such positions could get Fritz in
>>some serious trouble in the game.  Such a draw offer could be considered an
>>attempt to distract one's opponent and could result in a penalty (I believe
>>different federations have different rules, so I won't speculate on what this
>>would be for this particular incident).
>>
>
>Tiviakov was down to two minutes, and it was clear that he would not be able to
>win (promote a pawn, trade down to an elementary win) within that time. Fritz
>had more than half an hour and could have easily run Tiviakov down to zero.
>Frans Morsch offered the draw for one sole purpose: to say "GM Tiviakov, I do
>not wish to win this game on time". There is no other legal way of saying this
>during the game.


And I think what he did was a perfectly acceptable action.  Sudden death and
computers do _not_ mix if you add humans into the mix.  I have done the same
thing to GM players on ICC many times.  They always instantly ask "Why did you
do that?"  After I explain that I would rather draw a won game, or resign a
drawn game, in order to keep them coming back and playing more games, they
usually respond "OK, thanks..."



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