Draw by agreement
Encyclopedia
In chess
, a draw by (mutual) agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw
. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE
laws of chess
is article 9.1. The vast majority of drawn chess games at the amateur club/tournament level and higher are draws by mutual agreement rather than the other ways a game can be drawn (stalemate
, threefold repetition
, fifty-move rule, or impossibility of checkmate
) .
The FIDE laws state that a draw should be offered after making the move and before pressing the game clock
. Draws made at any time are valid, however. If a player makes a draw offer before making their move, the opponent can ask them to make their move before deciding. Once made, a draw offer cannot be retracted, and is valid until rejected. A draw may be rejected either verbally or by making a move (thus the offer is nullified if the opponent makes a move). The actual offer of a draw may be made by asking directly "Would you like a draw?" or similar, but players frequently agree to draws by merely nodding their heads . In international chess, the French word remis is an offer of a draw.
A draw by agreement after only a few moves (usually before much battle has been done) is called a "grandmaster draw". The name is a misnomer because grandmasters are not more likely to draw this way. Some chess players and fans believe short grandmaster draws or even all draws by agreement are bad, but attempts to stop or discourage them have not been effective .
At one time chess players considered bad manners to play out a superior but theoretically drawn endgame. In such cases, the superior side was expected to offer a draw .
There are certain behavioural norms relating to draw offers not codified in the FIDE laws of chess, but widely observed. For example, many consider it bad manners for a player who has offered a draw once to do so again before their opponent has offered a draw. Such repeated offers of a draw have also sometimes been considered distracting enough to warrant the arbiter taking action under article 12.5.
It is bad etiquette to offer a draw in a clearly lost position , , or even when one has no winning chances but the opponent still has winning chances . Garry Kasparov
regularly criticizes grandmasters who offer a draw when their position is worse . But such offers are sometimes used as psychological tricks. The position in the diagram on the right arose in the game Samuel Reshevsky
versus Fotis Mastichiadis, Dubrovnik 1950. Reshevsky played 24. Nd2?, and saw at once that he is put into a very bad situation with 24 ... Nxf2. Thinking quickly, he offered his opponent a draw, who was busy writing down the move in his scoresheet. Mastichiadis, a minor master, was so happy to get half a point against his illustrious opponent that he did not pause to examine the position before accepting the offer.
The rule about the procedure of offering a draw was violated in a 1981 game between Garry Kasparov
and Anatoly Karpov
. Kasparov moved 17. Ra2 and offered a draw. Karpov instantly replied 17... Be7 and then said "Make a move!", which is a violation of the rule. Kasparov moved 18. b5 and then Karpov accepted the draw .
In the 1958 game between Tigran Petrosian
and Bobby Fischer
, Fisher offered a draw without making a move first, which was accepted by Petrosian. He explains in his book My 60 Memorable Games
:
and former World Champion
Tigran Petrosian
played a twelve-game quarter-final Candidates Match
to ultimately determine the challenger for the 1978 World Championship
. After eleven games Korchnoi was leading by one point, so he only needed a draw in the final game to advance to the semi-finals. Korchnoi, as Black, was winning this game but he offered a draw after 40 moves. According to Edmar Mednis
, it was "gentlemanly and the practical thing to do" . Korchnoi went on to unsuccessfully challenge Anatoly Karpov
for the World Championship
.
All of the games of the second Piatigorsky Cup
were annotated by players, including the short draws. Their comments on two short draws follow (Spassky versus Petrosian and Reshevsky versus Portisch), followed by comments on some other short draws.
wrote:
wrote:
and Bobby Fischer
, the players agreed to a draw in an unclear position where White is a piece ahead. Asked about the draw, the teenage Fischer said "I was afraid of losing to a Russian grandmaster and he was afraid of losing to a kid." Averbakh stated that Fischer offered the draw and that each player had only about ten minutes to make the 19 or 20 moves before time control
.
between Anatoly Karpov
and Garry Kasparov
. This one occurred in the 29th game after thirteen moves. Kasparov explains
was held in Curaçao
to determine the challenger to Mikhail Botvinnik
in the 1963 World Championship
. There is good evidence that Soviet players Tigran Petrosian
, Paul Keres
, and Efim Geller
arranged to draw all of the games between themselves. The twelve games played between these three players were all short draws, averaging 19 moves .
This diagram shows the final position from the shortest one – only fourteen moves were played. This was in the 25th of 28 rounds, and the final game between Keres and Petrosian. Bobby Fischer
charged that Petrosian accepted a draw when he was winning and Jan Timman
agrees. Petrosian went on to win the tournament and win the championship from Botvinnik .
between Mikhail Tal
and Mikhail Botvinnik
, Tal only needed a half point to win the title, so he got to a position where Black had no winning chances, and quickly agreed to a draw.
, Lev Polugaevsky
and Mikhail Tal were leading with the same number of points going into the next-to-last round. They played each other that round. After
Polugaevsky offered a draw. Tal explains
, Kasparov had just lost three games in a row, which evened the match score. Kasparov had White in the 20th game, in which a draw was agreed after 21 moves. White had used 1 hour and 11 minutes; Black used 1 hour and 52 minutes. Kasparov writes "In the 20th game we decided in the end 'not to play' (i.e. to aim for a short draw)"... "A typical grandmaster draw, although one can understand the two players – each fulfilled the objective he had set himself before the game." Kasparov did not want to lose a fourth game in a row and Karpov wanted to draw as Black.
where the contestants can agree to a draw at any time for any reason.
Because such quick draws are widely considered unsatisfactory both for spectators (who may only see half-an-hour of play with nothing very interesting happening) and sponsors (who suffer from decreased interest in the media), various measures have been adopted over the years to discourage players from agreeing to draws.
, writing in a column for the Chess Cafe website, suggested that agreed draws should not be allowed at all, pointing out that such an agreement cannot be reached in other sports such as boxing
. Although some have claimed that outlawing agreed draws entirely requires players to carry on playing in "dead" positions (where no side can reasonably play for a win), Dvoretsky says that this is a small problem and that the effort required to play out these positions until a draw can be claimed by repetition or lack of material, for example, is minimal. He also suggests that draw offers could be allowed if sent through an arbiter—if the arbiter agrees that a position is a dead draw, he will pass the draw offer on to the opponent who may either accept or decline it as usual; if the arbiter believes there is still something to play for in the position, the draw offer is not permitted.
The very strong Sofia 2005 tournament employed a similar rule, which has become known as "Sofia rules". The players could not draw by agreement, but they could have draws by stalemate
, threefold repetition
, fifty-move rule, and insufficient material. Other draws are only allowed if the arbiter declares it is a drawn position.
Also known as the "Sofia-Corsica Rules", the anti-draw measure was adopted in the Bilbao Final Masters and the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2010 (part of the World Chess Championship 2011
) did not allow players to offer a draw. The draw had to be claimed with the arbiter, who was assisted by an experienced grandmaster. The only draws allowed were:
. Directors were unable or unwilling to enforce the rule. In 1963 FIDE made another attempt to strengthen the rule. Draws by agreement before thirty moves were forbidden, and the penalty was forfeit by both players. Directors were to investigate draws by repetition of position to see if they were to circumvent the rule. The rule was dropped in 1964 because it was decided that it had not encouraged aggressive play , .
In 2003, GM Maurice Ashley
wrote an essay The End of the Draw Offer?, which raised discussion about ways to avoid quick agreed draws in chess tournaments. Ashley proposed that draw offers not be allowed before move 50.
The 2003 Generation Chess International Tournament in New York City
had a rule that draws could not be agreed to before move fifty (draws by other means, such as threefold repetition or stalemate, were permissible at any stage).
in London in 1862, drawn games had to be replayed until there was a decisive result. A similar format, called gladiator chess
, was introduced in the Danish Chess Championships 2006.
Proposed cure for severe acute "drawitis" by FIDE officials Eliminates draws completely by forcing a fast time control game to be played after a draw to ensure there is always a winner and a loser. One potential issue for this proposal is that both players can quickly agree to a draw in the tournament game and then play a speed chess game to decide things. The FIDE 128 player tournament has seen many matches where the two tournament time control games are drawn and advancement is decided by rapid (thirty minutes for a game) or blitz (five minutes) games. This was tried in the 2006 Danish Championship
, see gladiator chess
.
has adopted a system that gives three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. This system discourages draws since they would only be worth two-thirds of their current value. The "3-1-0"
system was adopted by FIFA after various football leagues around the world had used it to reduce the number of stalling draws. This was used in the Bilbao 2008 tournament.
At the 1964 FIDE Congress, the Puerto Rican delegate proposed that a win be given four points, a draw be given two points, a game played and lost one point, and no points for a forfeit. This had been previously been suggested by Isaac Kashdan
, but it was not implemented .
The BAP System was designed to make it undesirable for one or both players to agree to a draw by changing the point value of win/loss/draw based on color played: three points for winning as Black
, two points for winning as White
, one point for drawing as Black, and no points drawing as White or any loss. Only one tournament (Bainbridge Slugfest tournament games) has been played under BAP, so there are not enough data to make firm conclusions with. However, there were no short draws in the Bainbridge Slugfest and all the draws were fighting draws.
A small number of tournaments in the past have adopted an alternative scoring system, whereby a win is worth three points, while a draw is worth only one (a recent tournament using such a system was Lippstadt 2003). Similarly, there have been proposals that certain kinds of draw should be worth more points than others – for example, awarding only half a point for an agreed draw, but three-quarters of a point for a side delivering stalemate (one-quarter of a point going to the side who is stalemated). As of 2005, these proposals have not been widely adopted.
wrote that he believed the rules did not need to change, and that the simple solution was for organizers to not invite players known for taking short draws. The draw problem – a simple solution, by John Nunn
In the previously mentioned 2003 Generation Chess International Tournament, players agreeing to premature draws were to be fined 10% of their appearance fee and 10% of any prize money won. In a similar vein, the tournament organiser Luis Rentero (best known for organising the very strong tournaments in Linares
) has sometimes enforced a rule whereby draws cannot be agreed to before move thirty.
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, a draw by (mutual) agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE
Fédération Internationale des Échecs
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE , its French acronym.FIDE...
laws of chess
Rules of chess
The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...
is article 9.1. The vast majority of drawn chess games at the amateur club/tournament level and higher are draws by mutual agreement rather than the other ways a game can be drawn (stalemate
Stalemate
Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....
, threefold repetition
Threefold repetition
In chess and some other abstract strategy games, the threefold repetition rule states that a player can claim a draw if the same position occurs three times, or will occur after their next move, with the same player to move. The repeated positions need not occur in succession...
, fifty-move rule, or impossibility of checkmate
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
) .
The FIDE laws state that a draw should be offered after making the move and before pressing the game clock
Game clock
A game clock consists of two adjacent clocks and buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, such that the two component clocks never run simultaneously. Game clocks are used in two-player games where the players move in turn...
. Draws made at any time are valid, however. If a player makes a draw offer before making their move, the opponent can ask them to make their move before deciding. Once made, a draw offer cannot be retracted, and is valid until rejected. A draw may be rejected either verbally or by making a move (thus the offer is nullified if the opponent makes a move). The actual offer of a draw may be made by asking directly "Would you like a draw?" or similar, but players frequently agree to draws by merely nodding their heads . In international chess, the French word remis is an offer of a draw.
A draw by agreement after only a few moves (usually before much battle has been done) is called a "grandmaster draw". The name is a misnomer because grandmasters are not more likely to draw this way. Some chess players and fans believe short grandmaster draws or even all draws by agreement are bad, but attempts to stop or discourage them have not been effective .
Etiquette
Although draws may be offered at any time, those not made as outlined in article 9.1 run the risk of falling under article 12.6 which states: "It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever. This includes unreasonable claims or offers of a draw." This rule is applied with the arbiter's discretion: a player loudly offering a draw while his opponent is thinking may well suffer a time penalty or even forfeit the game, but it is unlikely that a player would be penalized for, say, offering a draw in a lifeless position when it is not their turn to move .At one time chess players considered bad manners to play out a superior but theoretically drawn endgame. In such cases, the superior side was expected to offer a draw .
There are certain behavioural norms relating to draw offers not codified in the FIDE laws of chess, but widely observed. For example, many consider it bad manners for a player who has offered a draw once to do so again before their opponent has offered a draw. Such repeated offers of a draw have also sometimes been considered distracting enough to warrant the arbiter taking action under article 12.5.
It is bad etiquette to offer a draw in a clearly lost position , , or even when one has no winning chances but the opponent still has winning chances . Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
regularly criticizes grandmasters who offer a draw when their position is worse . But such offers are sometimes used as psychological tricks. The position in the diagram on the right arose in the game Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
versus Fotis Mastichiadis, Dubrovnik 1950. Reshevsky played 24. Nd2?, and saw at once that he is put into a very bad situation with 24 ... Nxf2. Thinking quickly, he offered his opponent a draw, who was busy writing down the move in his scoresheet. Mastichiadis, a minor master, was so happy to get half a point against his illustrious opponent that he did not pause to examine the position before accepting the offer.
The rule about the procedure of offering a draw was violated in a 1981 game between Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
and Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
. Kasparov moved 17. Ra2 and offered a draw. Karpov instantly replied 17... Be7 and then said "Make a move!", which is a violation of the rule. Kasparov moved 18. b5 and then Karpov accepted the draw .
In the 1958 game between Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
and Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
, Fisher offered a draw without making a move first, which was accepted by Petrosian. He explains in his book My 60 Memorable Games
My 60 Memorable Games
My 60 Memorable Games is a chess book by Bobby Fischer, first published in 1969. It is a collection of his games dating from the 1957 New Jersey Open to the 1967 Sousse Interzonal. Unlike many players' anthologies, which are often titled My Best Games and include only victories, My 60 Memorable...
:
I offered a draw, not realizing it was bad etiquette. It was Petrosian's place to extend the draw offer after 67... Rxg6+ [...] 68. Kxg6 Kb1 69. f8=Q c2 with a book draw . (see queen versus pawn endgame)
Practical considerations
Sometimes practical considerations are taken into account. In 1977 Viktor KorchnoiViktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ; pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit...
and former World Champion
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
played a twelve-game quarter-final Candidates Match
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
to ultimately determine the challenger for the 1978 World Championship
World Chess Championship 1978
The 1978 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio City, Philippines from July 18 to October 18, 1978. Karpov won.- Qualification :...
. After eleven games Korchnoi was leading by one point, so he only needed a draw in the final game to advance to the semi-finals. Korchnoi, as Black, was winning this game but he offered a draw after 40 moves. According to Edmar Mednis
Edmar Mednis
Edmar John Mednis was an American International Grandmaster of chess born in Riga, Latvia. He was also a popular and respected chess writer.-Biography:...
, it was "gentlemanly and the practical thing to do" . Korchnoi went on to unsuccessfully challenge Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
for the World Championship
World Chess Championship 1978
The 1978 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio City, Philippines from July 18 to October 18, 1978. Karpov won.- Qualification :...
.
Grandmaster draw
A "Grandmaster draw" is a draw in a few number of moves, usually without much battle, usually between high-ranked players. British expert P. H. Clarke talked about the positive aspects of a short draw:Unless you are of the calibre of BotvinnikMikhail BotvinnikMikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
– and who is – you cannot hope to play at full power day after day. The technical draws are a necessary means of conserving energy. As such, they contribute to raising the standard of play rather than lowering it .
All of the games of the second Piatigorsky Cup
Piatigorsky Cup
The Piatigorsky Cup was a triennial series of double round-robin grandmaster chess tournaments held in the United States in the 1960s. Sponsored by the Piatigorsky Foundation, only two events were held, in 1963 and 1966. The Piatigorsky Cups were the strongest U.S. chess tournaments since New...
were annotated by players, including the short draws. Their comments on two short draws follow (Spassky versus Petrosian and Reshevsky versus Portisch), followed by comments on some other short draws.
Spassky versus Petrosian
Boris SpasskyBoris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
wrote:
"The present game once again demonstrates how grandmasters play when they do not care to win. Of course, it is not an interesting spectacle for the onlookers. However, if chess enthusiasts could find themselves in the positions of the grandmasters they would not judge them so severely."
Reshevsky versus Portisch
Lajos PortischLajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik"...
wrote:
"Here Reshevsky offered me a draw, which was accepted. Is this a grandmaster draw? I do not think so. Reshevsky had consumed most of his time, and had only 30 minutes for the remaining moves. On my part it would have been pointless to rely on his time trouble as I saw that after 17. dxe5 Nd5 18. Bxe7 Qxe7 19. Nxd5 Bxd5 20. Be4, the draw is evident. In such a strong tournament and against such outstanding players it would not be wise to try to win a game of this kind. One could only lose energy. Neither side had any advantage, so why try to force the issue?"
Averbakh versus Fischer
In the 1958 game between Yuri AverbakhYuri Averbakh
Yuri Lvovich Averbakh is a Soviet and Russian chess player and author. He is currently the oldest living chess grandmaster.-Life and career:...
and Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
, the players agreed to a draw in an unclear position where White is a piece ahead. Asked about the draw, the teenage Fischer said "I was afraid of losing to a Russian grandmaster and he was afraid of losing to a kid." Averbakh stated that Fischer offered the draw and that each player had only about ten minutes to make the 19 or 20 moves before time control
Time control
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock...
.
Karpov versus Kasparov 1984
Several short draws occurred in the 1984 World Championship matchesWorld Chess Championship 1984
The World Chess Championship 1984 was a match between challenger Garry Kasparov and defending champion Anatoly Karpov for the World Chess Championship title...
between Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
and Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
. This one occurred in the 29th game after thirteen moves. Kasparov explains
Draw agreed on Black's proposal: with the resulting complete symmetry, the fighting resources are practically exhausted.White had used 99 minutes; Black had used 51 minutes .
Keres versus Petrosian
In 1962 a Candidates TournamentCandidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
was held in Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
to determine the challenger to Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
in the 1963 World Championship
World Chess Championship 1963
At the World Chess Championship 1963 Tigran Petrosian narrowly qualified to challenge Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Chess Championship, and then won the match to become the ninth World Chess Champion...
. There is good evidence that Soviet players Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
, Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
, and Efim Geller
Efim Geller
Efim Petrovich Geller was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions...
arranged to draw all of the games between themselves. The twelve games played between these three players were all short draws, averaging 19 moves .
This diagram shows the final position from the shortest one – only fourteen moves were played. This was in the 25th of 28 rounds, and the final game between Keres and Petrosian. Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
charged that Petrosian accepted a draw when he was winning and Jan Timman
Jan Timman
Jan Timman is a Dutch chess Grandmaster who was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West"...
agrees. Petrosian went on to win the tournament and win the championship from Botvinnik .
Tal versus Botvinnik
In the 21st of 24 games of the 1960 World Chess ChampionshipWorld Chess Championship 1960
The 1960 World Chess Championship was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and Mikhail Tal in Moscow from March 15 to May 7, 1960. Tal won.- 1958 Interzonal Tournament:An interzonal chess tournament was held in Portorož in 1958.-1959 Candidates Tournament:...
between Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
and Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
, Tal only needed a half point to win the title, so he got to a position where Black had no winning chances, and quickly agreed to a draw.
Polugaevsky versus Tal
In the 1967 USSR ChampionshipUSSR Chess Championship
This is a list of all the winners of the USSR Chess Championship. It was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners...
, Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was an International Grandmaster of chess and frequent contender for the world chess championship, although he never achieved that title...
and Mikhail Tal were leading with the same number of points going into the next-to-last round. They played each other that round. After
- 1. d4 Nf6
- 2. c4 e6
Polugaevsky offered a draw. Tal explains
"I played 2...e6 and Lev offered me a draw. I accepted, although for decency's sake we made a further 12 moves or so, and the question of first place was put off until the last round."
Kasparov versus Karpov 1986
Before the 20th game of the 1986 World ChampionshipWorld Chess Championship 1986
The 1986 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in London and Leningrad from July 28 to October 8, 1986. Kasparov won. Anatoly Karpov was already assured of this rematch during his previous year's match which was won by Garry Kasparov.-Results:The match was...
, Kasparov had just lost three games in a row, which evened the match score. Kasparov had White in the 20th game, in which a draw was agreed after 21 moves. White had used 1 hour and 11 minutes; Black used 1 hour and 52 minutes. Kasparov writes "In the 20th game we decided in the end 'not to play' (i.e. to aim for a short draw)"... "A typical grandmaster draw, although one can understand the two players – each fulfilled the objective he had set himself before the game." Kasparov did not want to lose a fourth game in a row and Karpov wanted to draw as Black.
Steps taken to discourage draws or short draws
Although many games logically end in a draw after a hard-fought battle between the players, there have been attempts throughout history to discourage or completely disallow draws. Chess is the only widely played sportSport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
where the contestants can agree to a draw at any time for any reason.
Because such quick draws are widely considered unsatisfactory both for spectators (who may only see half-an-hour of play with nothing very interesting happening) and sponsors (who suffer from decreased interest in the media), various measures have been adopted over the years to discourage players from agreeing to draws.
Only theoretical draws allowed (Sofia Rules)
The respected chess trainer Mark DvoretskyMark Dvoretsky
Mark Izrailovich Dvoretsky is a world-renowned Russian chess trainer, writer and International Master.He was awarded the International Master title in 1975 and for a while, was widely regarded as the strongest IM in the world...
, writing in a column for the Chess Cafe website, suggested that agreed draws should not be allowed at all, pointing out that such an agreement cannot be reached in other sports such as boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
. Although some have claimed that outlawing agreed draws entirely requires players to carry on playing in "dead" positions (where no side can reasonably play for a win), Dvoretsky says that this is a small problem and that the effort required to play out these positions until a draw can be claimed by repetition or lack of material, for example, is minimal. He also suggests that draw offers could be allowed if sent through an arbiter—if the arbiter agrees that a position is a dead draw, he will pass the draw offer on to the opponent who may either accept or decline it as usual; if the arbiter believes there is still something to play for in the position, the draw offer is not permitted.
The very strong Sofia 2005 tournament employed a similar rule, which has become known as "Sofia rules". The players could not draw by agreement, but they could have draws by stalemate
Stalemate
Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....
, threefold repetition
Threefold repetition
In chess and some other abstract strategy games, the threefold repetition rule states that a player can claim a draw if the same position occurs three times, or will occur after their next move, with the same player to move. The repeated positions need not occur in succession...
, fifty-move rule, and insufficient material. Other draws are only allowed if the arbiter declares it is a drawn position.
Also known as the "Sofia-Corsica Rules", the anti-draw measure was adopted in the Bilbao Final Masters and the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2010 (part of the World Chess Championship 2011
World Chess Championship 2011
The World Chess Championship 2012 will be a match between the current world champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the Candidates tournament. The match will be held in May 2012 at the Skolkovo foundation near Moscow, Russia to determine the World Chess Champion...
) did not allow players to offer a draw. The draw had to be claimed with the arbiter, who was assisted by an experienced grandmaster. The only draws allowed were:
- Threefold repetition of position
- fifty-move rule
- Perpetual checkPerpetual checkIn the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can force a draw by an unending series of checks. Such a situation typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate; while failing to continue the series of checks gives the opponent at least a chance...
- A theoretical draw.
No draw offers before a certain move
In 1929 the first edition of the FIDE laws of chess required thirty moves to be played before a draw by agreement. This rule was discarded when the rules were revised in 1952. In 1954 FIDE rejected a request to reinstate the rule, but it did state that it is unethical and unsportsmanlike to agree to a draw before serious contest had begun. FIDE stated that the director should discipline players who repeatedly disrespect this guideline, but it seemed to have no effect on players. In 1962 FIDE reinstated a version of the rule against draws by agreement in fewer than thirty moves, with the director allowing them in exceptional circumstances. FIDE had the intention of enforcing the rule and the penalty was a loss of the game by both players. However, players ignored it or got around it by intentional threefold repetitionThreefold repetition
In chess and some other abstract strategy games, the threefold repetition rule states that a player can claim a draw if the same position occurs three times, or will occur after their next move, with the same player to move. The repeated positions need not occur in succession...
. Directors were unable or unwilling to enforce the rule. In 1963 FIDE made another attempt to strengthen the rule. Draws by agreement before thirty moves were forbidden, and the penalty was forfeit by both players. Directors were to investigate draws by repetition of position to see if they were to circumvent the rule. The rule was dropped in 1964 because it was decided that it had not encouraged aggressive play , .
In 2003, GM Maurice Ashley
Maurice Ashley
Maurice Ashley is a chess grandmaster. In the October 2006 rating lists, he had a FIDE rating of 2465, and a USCF rating of 2520 at standard chess, and 2536 at quick chess. Ashley is associated with Chesswise. In 2005 he wrote the book Chess for Success, relating his experiences and the positive...
wrote an essay The End of the Draw Offer?, which raised discussion about ways to avoid quick agreed draws in chess tournaments. Ashley proposed that draw offers not be allowed before move 50.
The 2003 Generation Chess International Tournament in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
had a rule that draws could not be agreed to before move fifty (draws by other means, such as threefold repetition or stalemate, were permissible at any stage).
Replay the game (gladiator chess)
In the very first international round-robin tournamentRound-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".-Terminology:...
in London in 1862, drawn games had to be replayed until there was a decisive result. A similar format, called gladiator chess
Gladiator chess
Gladiator chess is a chess tournament style. It was introduced in the 2006 Danish Chess Championships.In gladiator chess no draws are accepted. In case the game ends in a draw, it is played again with reversed colors and shorter time limits. Specifically the first game is played so that each player...
, was introduced in the Danish Chess Championships 2006.
Proposed cure for severe acute "drawitis" by FIDE officials Eliminates draws completely by forcing a fast time control game to be played after a draw to ensure there is always a winner and a loser. One potential issue for this proposal is that both players can quickly agree to a draw in the tournament game and then play a speed chess game to decide things. The FIDE 128 player tournament has seen many matches where the two tournament time control games are drawn and advancement is decided by rapid (thirty minutes for a game) or blitz (five minutes) games. This was tried in the 2006 Danish Championship
Danish Chess Championship
The Danish Chess Championship was organised by the Danish Chess Union and first held in 1910. A masterclass was first introduced in 1915. But it is only from 1922 that the title of Danish chess champion was introduced, this was the first year also players from Copenhagen joined.-History:In 1949...
, see gladiator chess
Gladiator chess
Gladiator chess is a chess tournament style. It was introduced in the 2006 Danish Chess Championships.In gladiator chess no draws are accepted. In case the game ends in a draw, it is played again with reversed colors and shorter time limits. Specifically the first game is played so that each player...
.
Different scoring systems
Adopting new point-scoring rules akin to football, where FIFAFIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
has adopted a system that gives three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. This system discourages draws since they would only be worth two-thirds of their current value. The "3-1-0"
Three points for a win
Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which three points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points to the losing team. If the game is drawn, each team receives one point...
system was adopted by FIFA after various football leagues around the world had used it to reduce the number of stalling draws. This was used in the Bilbao 2008 tournament.
At the 1964 FIDE Congress, the Puerto Rican delegate proposed that a win be given four points, a draw be given two points, a game played and lost one point, and no points for a forfeit. This had been previously been suggested by Isaac Kashdan
Isaac Kashdan
Isaac Kashdan was an American chess grandmaster and chess writer. Kashdan was one of the world's best players in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was twice U.S. Open champion...
, but it was not implemented .
The BAP System was designed to make it undesirable for one or both players to agree to a draw by changing the point value of win/loss/draw based on color played: three points for winning as Black
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
, two points for winning as White
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
, one point for drawing as Black, and no points drawing as White or any loss. Only one tournament (Bainbridge Slugfest tournament games) has been played under BAP, so there are not enough data to make firm conclusions with. However, there were no short draws in the Bainbridge Slugfest and all the draws were fighting draws.
A small number of tournaments in the past have adopted an alternative scoring system, whereby a win is worth three points, while a draw is worth only one (a recent tournament using such a system was Lippstadt 2003). Similarly, there have been proposals that certain kinds of draw should be worth more points than others – for example, awarding only half a point for an agreed draw, but three-quarters of a point for a side delivering stalemate (one-quarter of a point going to the side who is stalemated). As of 2005, these proposals have not been widely adopted.
Financial penalties
In 2005, GM John NunnJohn Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn is one of England's strongest chess players and once belonged to the world's top ten. He is also a three times world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician....
wrote that he believed the rules did not need to change, and that the simple solution was for organizers to not invite players known for taking short draws. The draw problem – a simple solution, by John Nunn
In the previously mentioned 2003 Generation Chess International Tournament, players agreeing to premature draws were to be fined 10% of their appearance fee and 10% of any prize money won. In a similar vein, the tournament organiser Luis Rentero (best known for organising the very strong tournaments in Linares
Linares chess tournament
The Linares International Chess Tournament , is an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held...
) has sometimes enforced a rule whereby draws cannot be agreed to before move thirty.
External links
- FIDE laws of chess
- Chess Cafe archive page (Previously included a downloadable .pdf file of Dvoretsky's article "Draw?", but this seems to have disappeared by May 2007)
- "Issues on the Chess Table: Short Draws", by Mark Weeks
- Sofia draw rule
- Interm report on Sofia tournament by ChessbaseChessBaseChessBase GmbH is a German company that markets chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates a server for online chess. Set up in 1998, it maintains and sells massive databases, containing most historic games, that permit analysis that had not been possible prior to computing...
- Sofia 2005 final results