Issues on the Chess Table : Short Draws

A Typical Scenario

The last round of the Super Grandmaster chess tournament has started, the playing hall is packed with spectators, and everyone is watching the games with great interest on the large monitors. The main sponsor's Marketing V.P. has stopped by to see what the firm, a well known, multinational, high-technology star, is getting for its scarce promotional funds, and to discuss funding next year's event with the tournament organizer.

Twenty minutes into the round, a player stops the clock at one of the tables; both players shake hands, stand up, and walk off. The spectators get excited, 'What just happened? Did one of the players overlook a mate in one like Kramnik in his 2006 match against Deep Fritz?' No, the monitor shows a complicated position, pieces attacking and defending everywhere on the board. Then at another table, the players follow the same ritual: stop clocks, shake hands, leave. The same happens at another table, then another.

Finally, there is only one game left. The lowest rated player in the event, a local hero, is already in a difficult position, battling for a draw against a world top-10 player. He sinks into long thought for half an hour. With only one game to watch and nothing happening, most of the spectators leave quietly. The Marketing V.P. checks his watch, remembers another sponsorship opportunity with a tennis organizer, and leaves quickly.

Real story or fiction? With the exception of the sponsor, it's a real story that happens every year in top chess tournaments.

'Would you like a draw?'

The problem with short draws in chess is not that the games are drawn, but that they are drawn before the result is clear. One of the players proposes a draw and the other accepts. Sometimes the players agree on a draw after only 15-20 moves have been played. These short draws are sometimes called 'grandmaster draws'.

Short draws are not the same as pre-arranged draws, where both players agree before the game that the result will be a draw. Pre-arranged draws are frowned on by most and considered cheating by many, but no one except the two players can tell if a short draw was pre-arranged or if it was agreed during the game. This isn't the only problem with short draws.

Among competitive activities, only in chess can the players abandon the contest before determining the sporting outcome. In team competitions the idea is unthinkable, while in individual competitions like boxing, fencing, and bowling no one ever suggests that there be no winner. This only happens in chess, undoubtedly because a draw is a natural sporting result of a game.

Many agreed draws occur in positions where it is not at all certain that the game will eventually be drawn. The position might be full of life, but both players decide independently, for their own reasons, that a half point is an acceptable score.

Some short draws occur naturally. There are opening variations where a triple repetition happens before 20 moves have been played, or where so many pieces are swapped off at an early stage that only Bishops of opposite color remain with a rigid Pawn structure. These games are only a small percentage of short draws.

The 1995 Kasparov - Anand World Championship match (PCA) started with eight draws, only one of which was longer than 30 moves. Chipmaker Intel terminated its sponsorship of the PCA a few months later. The reasons for the termination of the contract were never explained, but some observers speculated that diminished fighting spirit was one factor.

Curacao 1962, a candidates' tournament, was the final event in choosing a challenger for World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. The eight player quadruple round robin, a 28-round marathon, had five Soviet players. Three of them -- Petrosian, Keres, and Geller -- played only draws with each other and finished in the first three places. Afterwards, American title hopeful Bobby Fischer, 19 years old at the time of the event, where he finished fourth, published an article in Sports Illustrated titled 'The Russians Have Fixed World Chess'. He complained that their pre-arranged draws allowed them to conserve energy and to play at full strength against the others. For the next cycle, the format of the Candidate event was changed from a tournament to knockout matches, but Fischer refused to participate. Long after the incident, Fischer's accusations were shown to be correct.

Although pre-arranged draws might be considered only borderline cheating, there would be no doubt if one player intentionally lost a game to the other player; 'only a draw' makes it palatable. The Curacao affair showed that pre-arranged draws give an advantage to the players participating in the conspiracy.

The 2003 Kasparov - Deep Junior man-machine match and the 2003 U.S. Championship were both marred by short draws in the last round. GM Maurice Ashley (see linkbox) described the disappointment of the organizers and the spectators at both events. Top players, who routinely complain about the meager sponsorship opportunities in professional chess, seem unaware that their own behavior is a major factor in the lack of sponsors.