CCT 11: Games so far...

[CThinker]

Chess programs and interfaces have no soul. They "intend" nothing.

I disagree with this one. Engines are game aware. When it tells us what move it makes, we trust it. If it makes a move that the operator does not like, the operator cannot override that. If the engine decides to stop playing (e.g., crashes) the operator cannot take over a make a move for it.

[hgm]

..., winning a lost game in such a manner wouldn't have given you much satisfaction though, I'd imagine.

It wouldn't have bothered me the slightest, had it happened to me. It reminds me in fact of the satisfaction I derived when I still played this game myself, when in blitz tourneys the opponent, after having refused 3 draw offers from me, with 20 sec left on his clock against my 2 min, finally says "OK, now it is draw", and I replied "I don't tink so...", pointing at the clock. This made them invariably explode.

And when a player under time pressure in a theoretically won position blundered away his Queen, turning it into a trivial loss, I never said "I guess you did not intend to sac your Queen, please feel free to pick another move". Just a "Thank you so much", and collecting the win sufficed. Blitz is all about time management, and people that do not understand this are simply poor blitz players. No matter how much stronger 99% of there moves is than mine, in terms of Elo. It is the worst 1% of the moves that determines the outcome.

Likewise, the whole point of computer Chess is to exploit the bugs and mistakes of your opponent. If I see that, after having totally chopped me off the board, the opponent does not seem to know how to win KQQK, I let my engine play on for the draw. (See e.g. the game Ktulu-Joker in the last Dutch Open.)

[Uri Blass]

Does anyone actually know what the FIDE rule is if a player accidentally knocks over his King and then does not follow up the "resignation" with a verbal commitment?

This is easy. I have recently followed a seminar for chess referees.

The resignation is only valid when you have signed the scoresheet. You may declare "I resign", you may shake hands with the opponent, but unless you have signed, you can keep playing.

This is simply nonsense.
I never sign the scoresheet and I simply shake hand and tell the referee that I resign.

http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook?id=124&view=article

5.1:The game is won by the player whose opponent declares he resigns. This immediately ends the game.

shaking hands may not be enough but declaring that you resign is clearly enough based on the fide rules.

Uri

[Uri Blass]

..., winning a lost game in such a manner wouldn't have given you much satisfaction though, I'd imagine.

It wouldn't have bothered me the slightest, had it happened to me. It reminds me in fact of the satisfaction I derived when I still played this game myself, when in blitz tourneys the opponent, after having refused 3 draw offers from me, with 20 sec left on his clock against my 2 min, finally says "OK, now it is draw", and I replied "I don't tink so...", pointing at the clock. This made them invariably explode.

And when a player under time pressure in a theoretically won position blundered away his Queen, turning it into a trivial loss, I never said "I guess you did not intend to sac your Queen, please feel free to pick another move". Just a "Thank you so much", and collecting the win sufficed. Blitz is all about time management, and people that do not understand this are simply poor blitz players. No matter how much stronger 99% of there moves is than mine, in terms of Elo. It is the worst 1% of the moves that determines the outcome.

Likewise, the whole point of computer Chess is to exploit the bugs and mistakes of your opponent. If I see that, after having totally chopped me off the board, the opponent does not seem to know how to win KQQK, I let my engine play on for the draw. (See e.g. the game Ktulu-Joker in the last Dutch Open.)

Your story reminds me another case.

I was in time trouble in a game(few minutes to finish the game) but had a clear advantage when my opponent offered a draw.

The best that I could do was to play fast and reject his offer and in this case I believe that I had better chances to win inspite of my time trouble but I did a mistake when I started to think and looked for a forced win.

I did not find a forced win and decided not to make another mistake by rejecting the draw so I accepted the draw.

My opponent was not happy with it and said that all the idea was that I am going to think and reject the draw and lose on time.

Uri