17 'impossible' draws at Dortmund

So yet another futile attempt to artificially remove draws from chess tournaments fails in Dortmund. The pre tournament publicity boasted of a cast iron 'No Draw Offers' rule which on closer inspection doesn't quite mean what it says. Although the players are not allowed to make draw offers they can ask the Arbiter to rule a position as drawn if he thinks there is no real possibility of a win for either side.

Given that most arbiters are likely to be old school players who can remember when adjournments were commonplace it stands to reason that they aren't going to force players to play on in unclear positions if both of them are happy with a draw.

Get rid of the stupid 'Sofia' rules as well and stop artificially trying to force professional players to keep going until somebody makes a mistake - draws are an integral part of top class chess and have been for a century at least, get over it..

I could understand the current obsession with trying to force top players to play on at all costs if short draws was a problem. In the 1980s many players could blitz out the opening and then agree to a draw when that was a result both were happy with. This was fairly common at the highest level, for example Spassky won Linares 1983 after drawing games in 13, 17, 17, 18 and 18 moves, and had another couple of draws in 25 moves. This in a ten round tournament. Karpov drew in 12 moves against Miles in the same event.

Today you rarely see this lack of fighting spirit at the highest level. When Carlsen won the Tal Memorial he had one draw in less than 30 moves, and that was because Kramnik preferred to go for a repetition in a better position. Seven of Carlsen's nine games were at least 40 moves long.

When Aronian won Wijk he played one draw shorter than 28 moves, when securing the victory in the last round against a Radjabov that preferred to go for a repetition in the opening instead of trying to win the tournament. Not strange that Aronian had nothing against that given the situation. Carlsen in second place had one draw in less than 34 moves, and this in a tournament of 13 rounds.

the sophia rules have helped to continue games that might have been declared draws earlier than normal.

The rule is not that no draws can be made there are actually a few parts to it. usually the rule is something like no draws before move 40 unless its a repeition or arbiter agrees (usually they play it out to avoid that problem) but in some positions things are just dead equal for players of that level. 

most people are happy with fighting draws though if they are chess fans.

The thing is that if both players aren't interested in playing on it's always easy to find a repetition, like in

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1654997

but this rarely happens nowadays. 

Both of you are correct, the problem is ANY drawn game is seen as worthless by many young players who get their thrills playing 5 minute blitz or bullet chess online. Normally I would blame the USA with its total aversion to any 'ties' in sporting events (just kidding my American friends :)) I mean Carlsen won in Moscow with 2 wins and 7 draws, every half point was hard earned and essential for his eventual victory but I bet 90 percent of chessbase owners only played over the wins unless there was a draw in an opening they are particularly interested in.

It's another thing that the 17 draws in Dortmund shouldn't have to be seen as a failure in preventing draws, if draws are supposed to be something bad. I mean, there isn't much to do about games like these (look at the final positions):

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1671753

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1672423

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1672200

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1672421

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1671754

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1672195

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1672194

Yes, and Chessbase can be quite annoying with their talk about how bad draws are, and all kinds of ideas how to stop all draws. I don't know how many times I've read their praise of some weak event because it had lots of decisive games, and then complaints about some top event because it had more draws. It's natural that many games at the highest level are drawn, but they are often much more interesting than a game between 2300s with a decisive result, and rarely without fight. This was the shortest draw in the Tal Memorial, and still quite interesting:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1669287