[Ghostavo]

Coming from another sport, chess, where the top players draw at a rate of about 60%, I can't figure out why one should feel bad with playing a draw.

Especially at top level, if both players had equal (often perfect) play, why should one of them get more out of the same game than the other?

[FrikgFeek]

To be fair, chess draw rate is 60% only for games. Draws are a bit rarer in 5 or 7 game matches. Though I think it's still decently high.


Also, 100 replies for this - holy crap.

[Ghostavo]

To be fair, chess draw rate is 60% only for games. Draws are a bit rarer in 5 or 7 game matches. Though I think it's still decently high.


Also, 100 replies for this - holy crap.

Matches are normally played until one side is victorious. But every other sport I can think of has ways to force a decisive result. Football has penalties for instance.

Hell, in armageddon tiebreaks in chess, if the black pieces manage to draw, they win!

[FrikgFeek]

I thought round-robin chess qualifications play for a set number of games. Most organizations simply don't have the money or space to organize a tournament with potentially unlimited gametime, and tie-breakers only happen in absolutely top-level play.
Then again I don't follow modern chess that much, so I'm not really sure about that.

EDIT: fcking autocorrect caught me off-guard. Well played.

[Ghostavo]

I'm though round-robin chess qualifications play for a set number of games. Most organizations simply don't have the money or space to organize a tournament with potentially unlimited gametime, and tie-breakers only happen in absolutely top-level play.
Then again I don't follow modern chess that much, so I'm not really sure about that.

Until 1986, world championship matches were played for an unlimited number of games or until one player had 6 wins. From then on, until somewhere in the 90's they decided to play a fixed number of games, and ended the match when one of the players had the required number of points to win (i.e. if one of the players had 5.5/7 out of 10 games, the remaining games wouldn't be played). These matches were still required to have a decisive result, so in case of draw, the champion won. In recent times, they play a fixed number of games, and in case of a draw, they'll go on to faster and faster time controls and ultimately armageddon.

Tie breakers can happen at all levels.

But this is a different issue altogether, what was being discussed was the result of a game, not of the tournament.