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© Copyright 1996, Jim Loy
This article originally appeared in the Montana Chess News.
This story is true. It is about a wild game that was played over and over again (dozens, maybe hundreds of times) from 1962 to 1964. During those years, it was illegal to agree to a draw in under 30 moves. This was done to prevent grandmaster draws. But grandmasters wouldn't be grandmasters without grandmaster draws. They need their rest, especially while playing. In fact, my spelling checker suggests that they should be called "grandmothers." Then their draws could be called "grandmother draws." Incidentally, I suspect that the most common injury in chess is getting a king stuck in your eye while dozing off. Checkers pieces are much safer in this regard. But I digress, did you notice?
Grandmasters came up with gems like this game:
Reshevsky-Bronstein, Amsterdam 1964 1d4 e6 2 Nf3 c5 3 g3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 d5 5 Bg2 Nf6 6 0-0 Bc5 7 c4 0-0 8 cxd5 Nxd5 9 Nb3 Be7 10 Bd2 Nc6 11 Nc3 Bf6 12 Rc1 a4 13 Nc5 Bd4 14 Nb3 Bf6 15 Nc5 Bd4 16 Nb3 draw (Zzzzzzz).
A very popular way to draw was with the following wild Grünfeld Defense. This may be the most often played complete game in chess history. Here's the original, which everyone copied:
Vaughan(Vaugham in some publications)-Purdy, Correspondence
1945
1d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 (Grünfeld Defense) 4 Bf4 Bg7 5 e3
c5 (This was the clue that Black was interested in a draw) 6 dxc5 Qa5 7
cxd5 (7 Rc1 or 7 Qb3 are just fine) [diagram] 7...Nxd5!! 8 Qxd5 Bxc3+ 9
bxc3 Qxc3+ 10 Ke2 Qxa1 11 Be5 (regains the rook) 11...Qc1 12 Bxh8 Be6 13
Qxb7 (13 Qe4 Bc4+ leads to a longer draw) 13...Qc2+ 14 Kf3 (14 Ke1
Qc1+) 14...Qf5+ 15 Ke2 Qc2+ draw.
Now that's pretty good stuff. But all those top drawers failed to realize that Black had a near-winning position, back a few moves. Instead of 11...Qc1, A. W. Rawie came up with 11...Qb1!, and White is in some trouble: 12 Bxh8 Be6 13 Qd3 (13 Qd4? Nc6 Black strong?) 13...Qxa2+ 14 Kf3 f6! (threatens ...Kf7)15 Bg7 Nc6 16 Kg3 Rd8 17 Qe4 (17 Qe2 Qb8 Black queens the a-pawn!) 17...Rd2!? is suggested by Uhlmann in ECO. Anyway this line is avoided by White nowadays.