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Question about draw offer

Question about draw offer

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If a draw offer is made to an opponent who cannot win, must the opponent accept?

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Originally posted by twohybrid
If a draw offer is made to an opponent who cannot win, must the opponent accept?
Nope.

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To paraphrase Bill Clinton, "It depends on the what meaning of the word 'must' is." According to the rules of the game, no. According to the rules of logic, he can do no better than a draw, so he must accept. But then you are getting into epistemology rather than chess.

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So, I must wait 150 - 300 days to get a draw or until one of us has a heart attack!

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Which game are talking about? Can you post a link?

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It's not on this site. It's R and K v. Knight and K

3 edits
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Originally posted by twohybrid
It's not on this site. It's R and K v. Knight and K
So a win is (theoretically with bad Play) possible for either of you. The best choice is to force an Exchange if possible if not to repeat a Position three times. In both cases the draw can be enforced via the arbiter.

for a mate by K+N against K+R. Last moves: R h2?? Ng3#

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Unless you can walk into a repetition, you have to wait to claim a draw under the 50-move rule and your opponent has to accept that. It is a long time to wait (especially in an online game!) but it is what the rules allow to cope with excessive stubbornness.
Over the Board there tend to be regulations to allow arbiters/team captains to declare draws in trivially drawn positions, never heard of a website having one.

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That is amazing!!! OK, I will have to always put my R en-prise!

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oops wrong place

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Apologies! I assumed you had the knight against the rook. With KR vs KN can you not get an automatic draw but swapping to lone kings?
If the website doesn't do that, you could offer them a draw, if they decline you could ask what their winning plan is, then exchange off, and then ask to see the next stage of the plan.

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Originally posted by dikankan
Apologies! I assumed you had the knight against the rook. With KR vs KN can you not get an automatic draw but swapping to lone kings?
If the website doesn't do that, you could offer them a draw, if they decline you could ask what their winning plan is, then exchange off, and then ask to see the next stage of the plan.
What is fascinating is that I was wrong in the first place. I assumed that because K and Kt can not checkmate a lone K, then K and Kt against R and K can't win. But, amazingly, as pointed out in this thread, K and Kt CAN win against K and R!!! So, maybe my opponent is hoping I will make a terrible blunder.

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Originally posted by twohybrid
It's R and K v. Knight and K
The side with the R can win, but it is not forced from all positions. It all depends on where the pieces are. See Reuben Fine, Basic Chess Endings, R vs N (no pawns), diagrams 496 - 500 (Dover paperback ed.).

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Originally posted by twohybrid
That is amazing!!! OK, I will have to always put my R en-prise!
See, you can discuss games in progress, as long as you do it on another site! 😞

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I'm not comfortable with this either, but there is nothing in TOS that
says you cannot discuss games from another site. 🙂

Perhaps Russ should start up a new forum.
Games from other sites that can be openly discussed.

Maybe we should pile across to Chess.Com and discuss our own Anand - Carlsen game.

(If you have the Rook just pin the Knight to the King and chop it.)