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Better players draw

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kyriazis

I've noticed since I started playing chess, that I draw very few times. This I believe is due to position volatility and the fact that tactics can be caught or overlooked at lower levels of play. But even when I got better at chess and pretty good at tactics, I still would rarely draw games.

It's odd because you look at grandmaster's track records or just the game explorer and you notice that most openings have a 20-35% draw chance.

Many of you would think that I'm just not playing people my rating level. But what happens is the score evens out because of wins and losses, not because of draws.

My conclusion is that the percent draws shows how good of a player you are, and if your draw percent is increasing then you are getting better at chess.

What say you?



ClavierCavalier

I don't get many draws at my level.  I wonder if it's because GM's can see much further ahead and know that the position is drawn but we idiots fail to see the right moves.  We miss that little pawn move that changes the position from a draw to a possible win to the other player.

doctorjimmy

GMs make smaller mistakes than we do, leading to positions with imbalances too small to translate to a decisive result.