Interesting Anti-Draw survey results.

Running Chess Tournaments
1

Does anyone else find it odd that the biggest supporters of “no draws at all” are the very people we are trying to keep from drawing?

chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3744

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A draw offer should be allowed... |All    | 2600+ | 2500+ | <2500 
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at any stage of the game          | 43%   | 42%   | 40%   | 45% 
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after 30 moves                    | 17%   | 19%   | 22%   | 11% 
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after 40 moves                    | 17%   | 13%   | 13%   | 23% 
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after 50 moves                    | 3%    |  3%   |  3%   | 4% 
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not allowed at all                | 18%   | 23%   | 21%   | 15% 
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abstain                           | 1%    | 0%    | 1%    | 1% 
------------------------------------------------------------------
2

Without knowing the methodology used to gather the data, its reliability is suspect.

How were the respondants chosen?

It is clear they understood the question?

How were the ratings determined (or verified)?

One of the problems pollsters have been facing is that people increasingly don’t tell the truth when they answer polls.

3

Judging from the link, these were 171 members for the Association of Chess Professionals. It looks like the ratings are FIDE ratings.

  • Enrique
4

I guess GMs draw strategically. If their colleagues couldn’t draw either, strategy would be different but not worse for them. Maybe they’re thinking that way.

5

IMHO one reason GMs have a lot of draws is that they are so good that they seldom make mistakes. When two of them play each other, each knows the other is unlikely to err, so they concede a draw easily.

Their level of chess is so much higher than ours, that we have trouble understanding this concept. So we look for ways to blame the GMs, and for artificial ways to discourage draws.

Bill Smythe

6

GMs make fewer mistakes and they know a lot of ways to draw a game. They are very tough to beat. But I don’t believe they can produce draws at will, most of them anyway, especially with modern dynamic playing styles and openings.

As Joel Benjamin says in his current online article, if 2 GMs start playing an even position, it may not stay even forever.