The other night I was playing as white in a 40/90 tournament. I was down to about one minute on my clock, and my opponent still had almost 50 minutes. I was winning, but since we were still 4 moves from time control, I repeated moves to gain time.
Now when I repeated moves, I checked with my queen first on e8, then on g8, then again on g8 (repeating the position). After I checked for the second time on g8, my opponent moved, hit his clock, and I started to think. After about 15 seconds, he claimed a draw. Now it wasn’t a draw and it wasn’t even the right time for him to claim a draw, but my clock was running out and he was talking.
Since I liked my opponent, I paused the clock and explained that it was only the second time the position was occurring. My question is, if this happens in the future, what should I do? Just pause the clock as soon as I can and call for a TD? It wasn’t an issue, but it was more or less the first time that I’ve had an issue like this so I was wondering what the collective wisdom of the board was in a situation like this. What if he waited another 30 seconds until I was down to my last 5 seconds to start talking?
You’re right that your opponent was breaking the rules by claiming a draw on your time. You have two options:
Ignore him and just make your move. Now it is up to him to get the TD.
Stop the clock and complain to TD that opponent is distracting you.
The last thing I would do is talk to him with your clock running. You might win the debate and lose the game. Some unscrupulous players may use this strategy on purpose to try and make you lose.
As a matter of principle, I rarely say much or anything to decline draw offers. On occasion, I might say a simple “no draw” if I feel so inclined, but usually I will just quietly make my next move.
Your appropriate response is to stop the clock and summon the TD. Ignoring him isn’t likely to work, since he is likely to continue trying to make the claim. The TD can then explain that a player can only make a draw claim when he is on move and that if a claim is made at any other time, it is distracting behavior, which is against the rules (see rule 20G). The TD should then impose the standard penalty, which is to add 2 minutes to your time (see rule 1C2a).
Whether your opponent’s behavior was intentional or not, he is likely to be dissuaded from doing it again when he realizes that it may possibly have cost him a win on time.
Pause the clock, and say, “First of all, please don’t talk while my clock is running. If you want to make a claim of any kind, do so while it is your move. Second, your claim is invalid because the position has occurred only twice, not three times. If you don’t agree, stop the clock and get a TD. Third, now I’m going to stop the clock, get a TD, and ask him to compensate me on the clock for the distraction you have caused.”