The badminton scandal at the London Olympics sparked some introspection in the chess community. One body of opinion blamed the format. I have some sympathy for that logic. If the organisers fashion a tournament in such fashion that several competitors find it easier to qualify by dropping a match, the organisers deserve to take flak. But it is also a disgrace in sporting terms for a professional player, and I’m using professional in the best sense of the word, to “chuck”.
Though the format was at fault in this case, sometimes situations where chucks are tempting will arise. Soccer teams have deliberately lost, so have cricket and bridge teams. So have chess players. One chestnut is the so-called “Swiss gambit”.
Swiss pairings tackle large open tournaments where say, 200 players are fighting it out over 9 rounds. In a Swiss, players get paired with opponents who have the same points. If you lose an early game, you may get several easy pairings as a result. On the other hand, your tiebreak scores are usually lower if you started with a first round loss and hit 8/9, compared to a player who hits 8/9 with a last round loss.
Chucks cannot be completely eliminated though they should be punished if proved. But chess is also unusual in that it allows for agreed draws. This is useful if both players want to catch up with shopping, or hit the night spots. Or if it’s the last round of a tournament and two players can lock in acceptable prize money with a quick smile and handshake.
I feel, like many other. that the agreed draw should be banned. It started as a historic concept where say, an ambassador was playing a king, and an agreed draw was a diplomatic way to end hostilities. It has no place in the modern game. However even a blanket draw ban as in the Sofia Rules will not prevent agreed draws.
Since a draw is a legit result, players can get around a ban by prior agreement. Constructing a perpetual or a triple repetition is easy. Indeed, if two players refuse to fight, there’s not much to do. But this is true of soccer as well. Two teams may knock the ball around casually for 90 minutes for a scoreless result.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Study by Behting 1908) is a amazing draw. It stumps computers, which can’t recognise fortresses. The official solution is 1. Kc6!! g1Q. 2.Nxh4! Qh1+3.Nhf3 (1/2-1/2) The black king is locked up, the knights protect each other and the c3 push is countered by dxc3. Now white can just keep wandering around with his king.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player