The Fun of "Draw" in Chess

Those who have just paid attention to chess will find such a coincidental and wonderful phenomenon-in chess matches, draws seem to have become a commonplace. Infiltrating such a competitive competitive circle, many people find this phenomenon incredible. They feel that chess is like a gentle and uncontested "invisible master". In fact, it is not the case. Chess is also a skill contest with the goal of winning, and "Draw" is just a strategy.

As a top-notch chess player, it is necessary to win chess. Just like a martial arts master, facing an opponent, he can know the details of the opponent after a simple move, and he is ready to win. Based on this mentality, if you can win the game by winning, do your part; if the victory has been secured, the next draw is also a kind of fun on the court. In the 1959 Candidate Tournament, Grand Master Benko met Tal. In the final match between the two, Tal could win the championship as long as he made a draw, and was therefore challenged by Botvinnik. Qualification for the world championship. Therefore, when Benko was already at an absolute disadvantage, Tal forced a draw. After the game, Tal said: "For Benko, I win if I want to win, and make draw if I want to!" This is a high-profile technical confidence. 

The game that they play is shown below:

However, in the competitive circle of chess, it is not advisable to treat draw as the ultimate art and pursue it tirelessly. Once this style of chess is developed, the desire to win will gradually fade in the long-term battle, and it will turn into the expectation of the birth of an outstanding "draw" game. It is easy to lose out when playing against opponents of comparable strength. In the Vienna World Championship at the end of 1910, German chess master Lasker once played against Austrian chess player Schlechter. (Schlechter is an outstanding player but lacks aggressiveness. In the game, his draw ratio was as high as about 80%. In the 1893 match against Marko, Schlechter even played 10 games. All played draws.) In the game, Schlechter only won by 2 points in 10 games to win the world championship from Lasker. However, with 10 games against each other, the two went to the 9th game. Except for 1 victory, Schlechter won the other 8 games as draws. In the deciding game, Schlechter was black and aggressively attacked, but because of his vigorous and resolute action, he exposed his flaws and eventually lost the entire game.

The game where is shown here:

Although draws are also a common phenomenon in today's chess tournaments, draws are still a problem that all chess and card tournaments strive to solve. Therefore, it is suggested by most GMs to take "winning chess" as your goal and "draw" as your strategy, and play chess games smoothly.