This looks suspicious

[MickinMD ★]

Five of the six finalists for the final round of the Chess Team USA: Southeast Team Championship have been determined.

The sixth spot is between myself and another player. We are tied in the semi-final round and each have 1 game to go in that round.  He wins on tiebreakers if we end up tied.

I saw that he (White below) was surely losing until his opponent, a 2058 rated expert who has already qualified as one of the finalists, just made the following move with his King instead of playing Queen to a5-checkmate, a move a Class E 1000 level player, with 2 days to think about the move, would have probably seen in an instant.  Is the expert toying with Black, also an expert, because he should have resigned by now and it's almost an insult to play on? I hope so.

Meanwhile, my final semifinal round game (below) is going well where I'm (White) ahead a Knight for 2 Pawns  - probably soon to be 3 Pawns but I can easily win one back: if he moves his Knight to a threatening position, I'll play Queen to h4-check and his game begins falling apart.  At this point, if I knew no hanky panky was going on, I'd offer my opponent a draw, gaining 1/2 point and advancing to the final round knowing the guy in the other game, tied with me now, was sure to lose.  My opponent is eliminated from advancing, is slightly losing to me now, and since he is rated slightly below me, he'd gain several rating points for a draw (and I'd lose an equal number from my Class A 1878 rating).

But I'm wondering in case the one expert does another expert a favor and lets him work his way into a stalemate (no piece can move without moving into check) or other draw, should I keep playing on to a win? If the draw occurs can I then claim the expert threw the game?  Not if they're clever enough to generate a stalemate.

[Dottleshead ★]

Dude. Chess is the mathematical game of the Gods