Thursday, September 23, 2010

Why drawing is the correct decision

First GM thinks Mas should be too hasty to draw and gives his reasons as well

Read Rationality's comments on this. Thanks to Rationality for his explanation as well as his analysis of the first round games - I rather enjoyed reading his non-chess comments. And just in case you think Rationality does not know what he is talking about, let me assure you, he is much stronger most of you reading this. But I like to add on to that for completeness.

A team game is unlike a normal individual game - more so when that game is in an event like the olympiad.

It does not further the team cause to play on - at that moment we had already lost the match. Personally I would do the same and preserve energy for the coming rounds. Yes, even though chess is a mind game, the physical effects cannot be discounted. Fatigue will set in around the ninth round. There is a very good reason why there is a reserve player (in older olympiads there were even two).

If you dig around hard enough, you will find examples where players continued in drawn positions and finally brought in the decisive point, as well as those where good winning chances were abandoned to ensure a half point was added to the team final score.

Mas made the correct decision. One should not continue the battle when it is already lost. Besides, there is that matter of the difference of three hundred rating points.

2 comments:

Chess 4 Life said...

From the angle of ELO rating points, the draw was huge. After the draw against GM Adams, Mas gained some valuable ELO points, 3.6 points from my calculations (before rounding off). AS compared to his win in round 2, MAS's 2nd round victory only got him an additional 1 ELO point.
Psychologically speaking, this is a dream start for MAS and the Malaysian team. A draw against a super grandmaster. And with 10 rounds to go after round 1, MAS had the correct attitude, "Take the draw, and fight another day!"

Collin Madhavan

Chess 4 Life said...

Oh yes, one more practical reason for taking the draw, we only have 4 players registered for the Malaysian(Open) team! This means that NO ONE gets to rest and NO ONE 'gets to fall sick' too!!!
Collin Madhavan

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