Psycho Psunday Part 1: Draw Pschology Revisited

This day went beyond the realm of Wacky Wednesday. I've been playing in rated tournaments since 1972. I have over 3300 rated games, not counting quick chess. I thought I had seen everything until my last round in the UMBC Open on Sunday. As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't play so hot on Saturday. The only reason I had a point was the massive brain fart that my opponent had in round two. I think part of my problem is when I play a slower time limit it takes me a couple of rounds to actually pace myself correctly. I tend to rush my moves early on, and then end out with a crummy position that I have trouble recovering from.

My 4th round opponent was about 15 minutes late. I always get a bit anxious in a morning round where I have a crummy score and my opponent is late. It's even worse when day light savings time has just begun. I start thinking "He got the bye last night. He's disgusted with his score, and is not going to show up. He forgot to set his clock forward so he's not going to show up until noon because he thinks it's 11." So on, and so forth. I hate forfeit wins. They're worse then byes.

This game was a struggle. I got a marginal position out of the opening, and couldn't get my pieces coordinated. I did use a lot of time. The 15 minute time edge I had evaporated and for a change I was the one behind on the clock. I felt my opponent had a few different opportunities to either trash my pawn structure or win a pawn, but he just slowly built up pressure and did not rush into anything that would give me play. We eventually traded queens, and I thought I was okay. I offered a draw after playing 29. Kf3 to reach the following position.



I usually don't offer draws when there are so many pieces on the board, but I was tired of struggling with the position. I didn't see that he had so much now that the queens were gone. He didn't say anything. He simply played 29...g5. I spent a couple of minutes debating between Rb3 or h3. I played 30. Rb3. I didn't think that 30...g4+ was that big a deal. Maybe I need to re-read posts like this one regarding draw offers, because I certainly had the "post rejected draw offer" let down. I'm not sure where my head at this point, but I played 31. Ke4.

Now talk about being totally oblivious to danger. After I make the move I'm thinking to myself "Oh damn, he's going to play the rook to d1 and get behind my h pawn, and I can't get back to defend." That was the least of my problems. He plays 31...f5. He doesn't say anything and he doesn't press the clock. I'm thinking to myself "What's this? How come he didn't press the clock?" Then it hits me. DUH! It's mate. Unfreaking believeable. I get mated by a pawn.

What else could possibly go wrong at this point? Remember Murphy's Law. "If anything can go wrong it will." O"Tool's commentary on Murphy's Law is "Murphy was an optimist." I think ole Murphy is a guy with a twisted sense of humor, who decided I needed something totally crazy and different to blog about. See Part II of Psycho Psunday for the details.

Draw Offer Psychology

In playing a lot of kids who are 100 to 200 points lower rated then me I've noticed an interesting trend if their attack fizzles out. Some kids will attack the living day lights out my king position. However if I survive the attack and the position is even the kid will switch from attack mode to draw mode. It happened again last night in my second round game.

ESegall-PW01108.pgn


Ethan was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at my king, but I beat back the attack. After 19. Bxg7 he offered me a draw. I thought about it, but I just felt there was too much play left in the position and the clock was no factor. I sensed he simply wanted a draw because of the rating difference. In the first round he kept offering draws to his higher rated opponent, and eventually lost. I wanted to see where this position was going so I played on. After he played 24. Nxf4 he offered another draw. I liked the play I was getting on the kingside so once again I declined his draw offer. I didn't say anything, I just played 24...exf4. Also the clock was becoming an issue for him.

He played 28. Qa1 trying to get me to trade queens. Again he offers I draw. At this point I'm getting irritated with the draw offers so I tell him that if I want a draw I will offer it so stop asking. I retreat my queen to e8. I was aiming to double the queen and rook on the open h file. I wasn't afraid of his queen on the diagonal. He tried to penetrate with Qf6, but my rook and queen hold the position. After I played Rg6 he should have retreated the queen, but he probably thought he'd get pressure on my g pawn by playing Nf3. At first I was concerned about that but 30... Bc8 trapped the white queen. Oopsies. Still think it's a draw? On move 37 with 29 seconds left he resigned.

I think when a player changes his goal from trying to beat his higher rated opponent, to simply drawing the opponent his play changes. Turning down the draw seems to unsettle the player. Perhaps that's what may have caused my implosion in last week's time scramble. I think when he turned down the draw despite my having the better position I think I just lost focus. I guess well timed draw rejections can be a good weapon in chess psychological warfare.