One of the more borderline cases in 'sudden death' chess is K+R v K+R Normally sensible players would agree to a draw one the last pawn cam off the board (and their were no immediate mates or tricks) but some players insist they can play one.
I had such a case in a junior rapid I was running today, where the aforementioned position occurred. I was alerted to it by an illegal move claim, and I dutifully gave an extra minute to the player making the claim. This left him with 9 minutes and his opponent 8 minutes. The opponent then offered a draw, but the player with the extra minute insisted on playing on. Maybe he was hoping for a 2nd illegal move (which would have been a poor way to win), or maybe he was hoping to flag his opponent. But in avoiding any repetitions etc he managed to get his pushed to the edge of the board, where all he need to do was check the opponents king to avoid mate. But did he do so? Of course not! He moved his rook and then seemed shocked when his opponent mated him.
So my usual speech about poor sportsmanship was replaced with a speech about karma instead.
1 comment:
Were you drunk when you made this post? :)
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