True or False Chess is a Draw with Best Play from Both Sides

JimDiesel most positions which might be produced by a super 32 piece data base are not relevant as anyone can look at them and see what the outcome of the position should be.  Also most players can look at these positions and can immediately see some very poor moves [mistakes] have been made.

99.99% of positions which might occur in a 32 piece table base do not occur in games between humans or computers.

Patriot  Best play today will not lose to best play in the future. It would not be "best play" if that were possible.

GM your statement that there may not have ever been a perfectly played game of chess is simply wrong.  Thousands of such games have been played. Look at current correspondence chess at the highest levels to confirm this.

Even some of our  over-the-board games by our strongest players have been perfect games. 

Any idea who is doing it?

I was going to say something, but I better not. 

All of the above.

You shouldn't be allowed on the internet.

While we're here in la la land, what's better, best play or perfect play?

I hope the people at Merriam Webster aren't reading this. They'd probably throw their hands in the air and say "I give up".

You are way too pessimistic. There are still plenty of chances to win a game even in high level CC.

I won recently the IECG/LSS World Championship with a total score of +4 =12 -0 which is "just" 75% draws.

Perfection? Perfection is subjective, unless you think that a human-tuned engine plays perfectly (which is far from being true).

Except for computers solving chess in a few years I think you are right. Eventually computers be able to solve much more complex chess positions and discover mates or draws in many more moves. I cant speculate how long it will be before they can do that with the first move though. Maybe never. 

I'm curious how many of these correspondence chess wins are white vs. black. I realize most are draws, and the draw rate is very likely to keep going up. But what happens if the draw rate gets to 99something percent and just stays there. What happens if the black win rate is zero or almost zero? Could a white forced win lie in that persistent 1%?

There fairly recently finished an ICCF tournament which consisted only of World Champions and former World Champions.  I think 11 players ? So each of the 11 players played 10 games each.  The result was a 11 player tie for First Place as Every Single Game Was Drawn!!

This tells something for those who understand what it tells!?

Of course in Correspondence play at the highest levels if there are any wins--White should do far better than Black. 

I won the 7th United States ICCF Correspondence Championship. This was the last Championship before computers.  I set a USA record which will NEVER be tied or broken. I won All my 7 games with Black!  With White I only scored 6 1/2 out of 7.

In addition to the tournament with only World Champions there is also a new development in ICCF Correspondence Chess which may be the best evidence to date that chess is a draw with best play!!

I read about it but then later could not find where I read it? So, right now, I cannot reproduce it.

But it will surely help lead to the end of correspondence chess at the highest levels as the top players will know they cannot win--at the highest level they can only draw...

Really David?

I have won the IECG/LSS World Championship a couple of weeks ago scoring +4 =12 -0 against very strong opposition.

The engines still have a LONG way to go until they play "perfectly" and all CC games end in a draw.

That's great. But since you have more experience with this correspondence chess I was wondering if you knew exactly how many games are won white vs black. Say in the last 5 or 10 years. Is there a pattern? And yes we all know most games are draws. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the games that are NOT draws. 

PATRIOT to answer your question. I don't know how many games are won by White and how many games are won by Black at the highest level of ICCF Correspondence chess?  I do know, of course] that White wins more than Black [maybe 300% to 600% better is my guess]

There are reasons White wins more than Black and if Black is doing somewhat better than before there are unique reasons but the trend will stop in  the highest form of correspondence chess, It is possible that you are looking at all correspondence chess and not at the highest levels?? At the lower levels anything can happen?

But if there is a slight trend for Black to do relatively better [at the highest levels] that trend will stop soon.

However I would be curious and glad to see your data?

pfren.  First, my best congratulations on your recent victory and your super score, That was an amazing performance!

However since I have always been involved with ICCF--my comments refer to that venue,.

I have absolutely no data. I thought you might. But from what I understand black wins less and less, and white wins more and more. At the same time draw rates go up. So the obvious question is which will succeed? White, or draws.