How Often Do Master Level Games End in Checkmate?
Sort:
very few i should imagine. i cant see many GM's playing on till the death, the fact that they look so far ahead means very few games dont end in resignation i should imagine.
Well, maybe one GM vs GM game a decade or so.
Master games, 1 in a 1000 give or take.
Yup it is very rare since as others stated a grand master would basically have to walk into a checkmate without seeing it for this to happen. Playing to the death is only for novices it would appear. Off the top of my head I remember former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik famously walking into a checkmate in his match against Deep Fritz in 2006. It was funny because the checkmate was simple with most pieces already traded off the board, yet the number one player in the world did not see it! I still remember how shocked the chess world was with this...
Ahh thanks Gonnosuke, I guess I was wrong then. I also failed to take into consideration checkmates delivered in a time scramble when a player is under serious pressure. Still I guess those stats you listed indicate that there are a lot more "dead-enders" at master level than I had previously thought.
If a player's got a very nice forced combination with sacrifices and all you can wish for, then it's a sign of good sportsmanship to play it out. So both players are satisfied with a spectacular ending on the board- and a little piece of chess art for history :)
It's no difference between a club player or a GM at that point
It's not happening often under OTB tourney conditions.......GMs ususally realize when it's a done deal........
Good question, LibertasMaximum. Few professional games end in checkmate, because players tend to resign long before checkmate, I assume. To be frank, I've never seen a professional chess game that ended with a checkmate... only a couple blitz games.
Gonnosuke wrote:
usher wrote:
If a player's got a very nice forced combination with sacrifices and all you can wish for, then it's a sign of good sportsmanship to play it out. So both players are satisfied with a spectacular ending on the board- and a little piece of chess art for history :)
It's no difference between a club player or a GM at that point
I couldn't agree more. In the "Game of the Century", GM Byrne played on to the very end and allowed Fischer to mate him. He was obviously aware that he was part of something really special and allowed the young phenom to finish what he had started. Very sporting of GM Byrne; I always thought highly of him for doing it. It couldn't have been easy on the ego getting beaten by a 13 year old and if I were in his shoes I'm not sure I'd be big enough to do the same thing.
Donald Byrne was only IM , he never made GM . His brother Robert was GM. Oddly enough Fischer had a beautiful win against both of them and Fischer was black in both games and the opening was gruenfeld !
I would say hardly ever!
ADK
Thanks for all the responses.
I figured that not many Master level games ended in mate.
It seems that one side often resigns before they're actually mated.
Just curious.