A Draw Worth a Win?

Is a Draw worth a Win? I think there is a case to be made for that unusual question.

Obviously any literalist will give you a resounding "No!" but I think if you were to meet Ding Liren, when he is in a philosophical mood, he might just agree, and say "Yes...".

During the most recent FIDE World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi, of all the games played between the two them neither of them ever had two wins in a row.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2023

The game by game results are in the sidebar of that wikipedia page and if you go down the list of games you'll see that the only participant to get credit for 2 games in a row was some unruly character by the name of "Draw" and that includes the tiebreak games!

Being retired, I had time to watch most of the games and I think the only person who spent as much time sitting was Ding Liren.

I have/had the impression that was a pretty tough match for Ding. It certainly showed in his time usage. In many games he was under some serious time pressure.

I would suggest, what saved him and allowed him to continue in the match, until becoming Grand Champion for 2023, was the Draw games that he managed to force.

I suggest, if you're able to continue in a match or tournament because of a Draw, that Draw might actually be equal to a win. Okay, maybe only 75% of a win which, speaking philosophically, is still better than the players officially being accredited with 50% of the win, per Draw.