All,
First a few stats:
1) The record number of draws at the start of a World Championship is seven.
This occured in the 1978 Karpov-Korchnoi match - Karpov won the 8th game and
eventually the match 6-5 - and also in the last WC match Carlsen-Karjakin in
2016. Karjakin won the 8th game, Carlsen the 10th and the match was drawn 6-6
before Carlsen retained the title by victory in the rapid play-offs.
2) The record number of consecutive draws is seventeen from the 1984-5
Karpov-Kasparov match which was abandoned after 48 games with Karpov leading
5-3 in the race to the first with 6 wins.
3) No WC match has ever resulted in all games being drawn.
Personally I feel WC matches should be played to a set number of games,
probably between 16-24, and the winner is the first to 50% plus, regardless of
how many victories they have. However, I also feel that the WC himself
(herself) is too well protected (Botvinnik opined the same!) and that a WC
tournament each year is a truer test.
Regards,
Tyson
On 20 November 2018 at 06:50 JT <hazelnutt2001@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is becoming a long, drawn-out affair! My curiosity is drawn to a
possibly interesting detail, but I would need to draw upon someone's
research skills to learn, when was the last time the World Championship
match opened with eight consecutive draws? Indeed, when was the last time
there were eight consecutive draws at any point during a world Championship
match? It probably happened, maybe more than once, before the match was
limited to 12 rounds; I believe I'm correct on that. I believe there was a
time when the players played until someone accumulated 12 points. In any
case, I'm made to wonder if one or the other will wait till the
second-to-the-last round to try to play for a win. I say second-to-the-last,
because that way, if one of them goes for a win and fails, they have one
chance to even things up. If they wait till the last round to try for a win
and miss, one of them could finish with 11 draws and one loss. Maybe FIDE
could stipulate that if the Championship match goes 12 rounds with all
draws, the title goes to the challenger! That might liven things up a bit!
Anyway, at our level, there is still much to be learned. Enjoy!
Jim T
Caruana, Fabiano vs Carlsen, Magnus
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Nd5
Nxd5 8. exd5 Nb8 9. a4 Be7 10. Be2 O-O 11. O-O Nd7 12. Bd2 f5 13. a5 a6 14.
Na3 e4 15. Nc4 Ne5 16. Nb6 Rb8 17. f4 exf3 18. Bxf3 g5 19. c4 f4 20.
Bc3 Bf5 21. c5 Nxf3+ 22. Qxf3 dxc5 23. Rad1 Bd6 24. h3 Qe8 25. Nc4 Qg6 26.
Nxd6 Qxd6 27. h4 gxh4 28. Qxf4 Qxf4 29. Rxf4 h5 30. Re1 Bg4 31. Rf6
Rxf6 32. Bxf6 Kf7 33. Bxh4 Re8 34. Rf1+ Kg8 35. Rf6 Re2 36. Rg6+ Kf8 37.
d6 Rd2 38. Rg5 1/2-1/2
