Early draws in chess. good or bad ?

bigtoe7

the top board game in senior championship ended today after only 14 moves as white only needed a draw to win the tournament and on board 5 after 15 moves,in both cases outcomes is unclear and we had early draws in previous rounds as well .on one hand you can argue that decision of early draw should be up to the players for whatever reason , whether it is strategic or conserve energy , on other hand these artificial draws effect other players too as to who is paired with who in next round and their final placement in competition and winning prizes .

would it be good to introduce sofia rules of chess ? where draws are only accepted if it is theoretical draw, three fold repetition or 50 moves rule apply and when offer of draw is made and accepted ,arbiter will look at game and if not satisfied can ask players to keep playing . azerbaijan chess has introduced a rule from this year that no offer of draw can be made before 30 moves made unless it is a true drawn position.

has anyone seen early draw in other games or sports ? imagine if in a football game a draw suited both teams and after 20 minutes they stopped the game a called it a draw or in boxing a fighter offered draw to his opponent and fight stops .

cdeb

A draw is up to the players; no other rule makes any sense.

This is Hubner v Rogoff, 1972 -

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Ng1 Bg7 4. Qa4 0-0 5. Qxd7 Qxd7 6. g4 Qxd2+ 7. Kxd2 Nxg4 8. b4 a5 9. a4 Bxa1 10. Bb2 Nc6 11. Bh8 Bg7 12. h4 axb4 ½-½

(A draw had been offered and accepted after move 1, but the controllers ruled the players had to play a game. So they did. They were then asked to play a proper game, and one player refused to turn up and so forfeit the game)

You can't really have early draws in other sports because they're played over a time-limit. The comparison doesn't work.

checknraise

The position may appear unclear to you but it looks to my like Colm had a decent advantage and with a draw being enough to win the tournament it would have been madness for him to play on.

I dont agree early draws myself just as a matter of principle with every game of chess being a oportunity for me to improve my play. If players are being paid to play then I agree that Sofia rules should be implemented but when people are amatuers paying out of their own pocket to play then it is up to the players. Juniors are terrible for agreeing draws too early out of fear of losing but it does slow their improvement

bigtoe7

@cdeb . chess also has time limits but in sports like football when both team happy with draw they just waste time til time runs out or boos and jeers from crowds pushes them to play a bit . in football i always felt clock should stop when ball is not in play compensated by shorter halves .

@ chickenraise . white is slightly better than black positionally but surprised that black accepted draw so early as a win for black would mean he will be the irish chess champion , sometime you have to believe in yourself and take a bit of risk for a title if you ask me .

Sparks

Silman had [url=http://www.chess.com/article/view/punishing-a-chess-pro-for-making-a-draw
]an interesting viewpoint on this[/url]:

Your comment that draws are a “form of corruption and abuse of the game” is preposterous. It’s a legal and natural part of chess, and if players wish to make a draw so that they can assure themselves a payday and continued meals for another month, then why shouldn’t they do so? On the other hand, if the event is a 10-player all-play-all, and the participants were paid large fees to fight in each and every game, then I agree that such draws should be avoided. In situations of this kind, failure to fight usually leads to the offending coward not being invited back for the following year’s event.

3) The real question isn’t whether offering/accepting draws is okay – it’s legal and is obviously okay. The real question is whether the laws should be changed. I feel the rules of chess shouldn’t, but others have equally valid arguments to the contrary. In the World Championship match, the organizers wanted to abide by Sofia Rules, which only allows draws in dead positions or via stalemate and 3 time repetitions. Anand refused, saying that he plays by the World Championship rules, not the organizer’s rules. I applaud Anand for this, while others will feel very differently.

...

5) I made a clear point in my article that if a player is invited to an event and the organizer (who stipulates that he doesn’t allow quick draws) pays them beforehand (expenses and cash), then the players should abide or not play. But if one plays in a normal event, he can draw in 12 moves if he’s so inclined … that’s legal.


6) I have to smile at all this moralizing “we’d play to the end so you should too!” rhetoric. Is this true? At the World Open they have class prizes of ten grand for “C” players, “B” players, and “A” players. How many “B” players, who found themselves in a last round game for all the marbles, would refuse a 6-move draw if it gave them clear first? If you say you would refuse a draw and play to the end no matter what, then I tip my hat to your resolve. But I’ve seen very few players of any rating refuse a big pay off if a simple handshake makes it a reality. But perhaps the people commenting here mean that pros should play to the end, but they themselves should have the option to take draws if it suits them.

Granted, he's more talking about chess professionals, but it's still worth the read, and that point about people being paid to play does have a mild resonance here...