Over in the Chess Tournaments forum, there is a thread about USCF Rule 14F. I’m posting this game in part to show that there are games (not just from kiddie tournaments, either!) where the 50-move rule has applied before anything resembling an endgame was reached.
Admittedly, it’s not the most exciting game ever. But it might have a record for the longest game without a capture. So, courtesy of ChessBase’s Big Database, I present…The Snoozer. (I’m guessing White claimed a draw with the arbiter prior to making his 70th move.)
While I haven’t seen any without captures, I’ve definitely seen games that reached “50 move rule” positions in the middle game, simply because the players have locked up the pawns so badly that no progress is physically possible.
In one particularly memorable case, a game between a 1500 teen and an 1800 adult, there was one open file, but everything else was totally locked. They got into time trouble, and just sat there abusing the 5 second delay, with the 1500 offering draws a few times, and the 1800 refusing. If I remember correctly, they traded rooks on the open file, but then fought back and forth trying to maneuver their pieces into having better control of the open file than their opponent, hoping to get their pieces through that one hole so they could start an attack behind enemy lines. Since it was the last game to finish in the round, a few of us were standing there watching, and we definitely saw them repeat several positions 3 or more times, but they’d stopped keeping score long ago. Eventually, the 1500 wised up and requested the TD to count moves for the 50 move rule. Ironically, the 1800 ended up blundering and letting the 1500 into his position, where he got a checkmate with his queen the following move.
It’s close to the record for longest game without a capture, but see Tim Krabbé’s records page for a couple longer examples.
There is one other game quoted by Krabbé as “earliest 50-move draw,” Pouw - Van Dort, tt Oegstgeest 2005, also a 69-mover. So your example is indeed an apparent record!
20 h4 h5 was played, so it wouldn’t be until black’s 70th move that 50 moves without a pawn move or capture would have been played. Thus a 69-move game with a 50-move draw would still beat this one.
Once, I had a 70+ move draw against a stand alone computer, in which not a single piece was exchanged.
The computer was a Radio Shack stand alone chess computer circa 1984.
I suppose its playing level was around 1650 USCF, although not really sure what its 10min rating was. Back around 1984, a computer’s strength would go down pretty quick the faster it played.
(I’m assuming its 1650 rating was based on a traditional time control like 40 moves in 2.5 hours.)
I did some research on this. In “The Even More Complete Chess Addict (2nd ed.)”, Fox and James reproduce this game on pp. 236-237. However, their version is 70 moves, not 69. Here’s the score they give.
This version makes more sense, as current FIDE rules wouldn’t have allowed White to claim the 50-move rule under the ChessBase score. (Not sure if that applied to 1966.) Also, CB does have some errata in it.
I wanted to mention, around move 20 or so, the pawns were all locked, so it was basically a forced 50 move draw. Any attempt to break the pawn structure by either side would’ve meant a *losing position. (At least back then, hard to say in terms of today’s ultra strong engines.)
*The only way to break the pawns was with a knight sacrifice.
(I’m guessing White claimed a draw with the arbiter prior to making his 70th move.)