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All that the 50-move and threefold repetition rules do is permit one player to claim a draw; the game may continue if both players wish to play on. (It has happ
by dfan 9y ago
All that the 50-move and threefold repetition rules do is permit one player to claim a draw; the game may continue if both players wish to play on. (It has happened, particularly threefold repetition where the repetitions are spaced far apart and the players don't have much time.)
There are actually new FIDE rules as of 2014 or so, where after 75 moves, or a fivefold repetition, the game is immediately declared drawn without the need for a player to take action.
- schoen 9y agoThis is a good point in that it means players could have collaborated to deliberately achieve an arbitrarily long game (and indeed, in some of the long reported games it looks like nobody chose to claim a draw for a while). I guess such collaboration isn't sportsmanlike in a competitive setting, but it wouldn't have been precluded by the rules. Thanks for that clarification.
- sanderjd 9y agoAt the highest levels it probably does imply collaboration, but where I play at (much) lower levels, I might very reasonably choose not to take a draw because I think my opponent is likely to make a mistake that will result in a win for me. My opponent may reasonably think the same about me.