When and How to Draw in Chess? (Part 2)

Hi all,

This is the second part of When and How to Draw in Chess. We have already discussed about the significance of drawing, stalemate, insufficient material and the 50 move rule. In case you haven't read part 1 yet, then click on the following link:- https://www.chess.com/blog/Pradipta22/when-and-how-to-draw-in-chess-part-1

Now, we will continue from where we left last time.

4) Threefold Repetition

It states that if the same position reapeats in the board 3 times then either player can claim draw.

There is another very similer rule known as fivefold repetition. It states that if the same position reapeats in the board 5 times then the game is drawn by the arbiter. (Even if the players don't claim it.)

Now, it is not at all likely that if you want to draw a match, your opponent will repeat the same position intentionally. So, to force a threefold repetition, we use a technique known as perpetual check. Perpetual check is the situation when you are able to check your opponent repeatedly till your opponent is forced to repeat it. E.g.

In this example white has successfully drawn the game using threefold repetition.

Now a couple of puzzles for this as well:

5) Draw by Agreement

Draw by agreement occurs when both players agree on draw ing the game. There isn't anything to practice at all in this segment at all but there are a few basic etiquettes you should follow:-

First of all, if you are playing a match with physical board (i.e. not in chess.com or anyother website), if you wish to offer draw, you should do so as soon as you play your move. Just ask your opponent "offer draw?" or "draw?" or other similar phrases. You shouldn't ask for a draw sometime after you have played your move as it can distrub your opponent, who is also probably thinking very hard on what should be his/her next move.

Second of all, if you have already asked for a draw which your opponent has already declined, you shouldn't ask for a draw again until and unless the position has changed drastically or your opponent has also asked for a draw previously.

One should follow these etiquettes to make chess fun and fair for all.

6) Draw by Insufficient Material vs Timeout

This kind of draw also mostly take place by luck. It takes place time runs out for one player but his/her opponent doesn't have enough pieces to checkmate the first player (I.e. the opponent only has a king, a king and a kinght or a king and a bishop). We have already discussed what is the minimal requirement to checkmate a player when we discussed about insufficient material in part 1 of this blog.

Try to solve these puzzles, these are a bit harder than the previous ones and some of them are based on multiple concepts discussed within part 1 and 2 of this blog:

A)

The Factor of Luck

Well, I have already mentioned about luck several time thoughout both part 1 and 2 of this blog. It is sometimes luck which can decide the result of the game. But that does not mean you should rely on luck. The way you might get lucky in a match, you might get unlucky in another match as well. So,the factor of luck might seem trivial, but it is important. Luck can include anything from  suddenly your opponent losing network connection to your opponent missing an obvious move. But luck becomes an important factor in blitz, bullet or hyperbullet games where the players having very less time and it is easy to miss good moves. You shouldn't expect to be lucky in rapid or daily games though.

On todays context of draws, I am going to show an example where luck matters. The example I'm going to show is from a real game I played.