From: Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> Date: 10 apr 2000 Subject: Re: A funny thing happened in Cincinnati At 04:14 AM 4/9/00 -0400, you wrote: > >>> In the first round of our >>> recent qualifier, chess master Ramdake Lewis offered me a draw...in a >>> This he did twice, which was not unexpected by myself, >>> or any others among the Ohio Shogi Club, since Ram has offered draws >>> before (and gotten some!!) and has declared he will continue to do so. > A rule that is often used in amateur shogi events, which I personally favor, is to have all jishogi games decided by whoever is ahead on points, regardless of how much, with white winning in case of a tie score (27-27) and white getting credit for his removed pieces in a handicap game. So the only draws are repetition, which are more practical to replay than jishogi games (since they already take forever). Whether repetition games are replayed or scored as 1/2 varies from event to event; in elimination tournaments they must of course be replayed, but in Swiss system events I see no need for this. USSF policy has been not to rate draws. Draws by agreement should only be allowed if the two players are agreeing that the game will end in a jishogi draw, but if the above rule is adopted then this situation will not exist. Larry Kaufman