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Subject: Re: Draw Offer: A Moment For DJ Team To Regret For The Rest Of Their Lives.

Author: Mike S.

Date: 01:22:22 02/08/03

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On February 07, 2003 at 21:59:05, Graham Laight wrote:

>(...)
>Here's another thought. Shay and Amir should have trained their minds to
>withstand the pressure to take a draw.
>(...)
>Oh how I wish - and I know that many others feel the same way as well - that
>today they had taken the COURAGEOUS path rather than the cowardly one
>rationalised as "sensible".

True. It's something I used to think ever since. It's like a "VIP bonus", as I
call it. Draws are often agreed (or even offered) much too soon by the computer
operators/programmers. The position may be equal (among two human GMs), but the
program will still apply the "tactical" pressure on the human opponent, in other
words he would have to play precisely throughout a probably boring and tiring
rest of the game, while the computer doesn't get tired. That's a computer
advantage the comp teams should use, just like the human has his advantages in
strategy etc.

I remember a Fritz game from a Dutch Championship (which was widely discussed
because of Fritz' participation), where Frans Morsch offered the draw when the
GM was in better position, but was in severe time trouble and would undoubtly
have run out of time otherwise. Result of Morsch's courtesy was that the GM
complained (!) afterwards that Fritz should have resigned. So it doesn't pay
anyway. Comp teams should go for the full point always, with no compromises as
long as there is still much doubt if they are top GM level or not.

But OTOH, each draw is a big achievement against that category of players, and
not drawing means risking a loss...

Regards,
M.Scheidl



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