Chess without draws

A chess game like a war must end by a score, showing the line, cracks or paths used to reach a victory. Those games that are drawn to an end with an even score, are not showing the true impact of the loses. The territory controlled in the end is the true score.

Chess is about mobility and control. Since no two kings can sit in the center of the chessboard at the same time, why not finish the game with a race to the center of the chessboard when insufficient mater to mate has been reached? It's a simple rule to end king vs king, enlightened by king of the hill. So those drawn K vs K games or insufficient material to win games can now have a winner. We could then also see which king is in the center which would indicate the winner. The winner would then gat that full point and the other a half point. This would spice up the end game.

A count for every check in the game has existed before. It too could be applied to the drawn scores, because it's nearest to the aim of the game, checkmating the king. Chess could have the present European chess game and a North American chess game that would unbalance most drawn results by a king race to the middle of the chessboard.

An illegal move could include preventing the opponent from playing a move. So kings could be captured and stalemates would no longer exist. After all a piece touched must be played unless there is no place it can move to. So the same principle should apply to the player causing a stalemate. "The opponent having a turn must be permitted to play their turn." Step on the square to lose a piece. It's up to the other player to discover they can capture it.

In 1747 ... Philidor gave the odds of the move, allowed his opponent to score all drawn games as won.

So it would not be the first time that something extra was added to drawn games.

Only in competitions with only two players, draws could be abolished. Exceptions: Fifty move - rule, stalemate and all positions where a checkmate is in no way possible. And of course: Nobody can win when he only has his King left). Concerning the fifty move - rule: You can't abolish the fifty move rule in games with long time limits, because the problems that arise from flagging out the opponent who has less time would become too great.

The more I read the more ideas come to mind. I like the idea of: "After a drawn game, the king that can reach the central squares first wins the game." Idea from the end game of "Sannin_shogi". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannin_shogi

I also discovered "Hexagonal chess". Stalemates counted but less than checkmates. It's the player who delivered the stalemate that earns an extra 1⁄4 point compared to standard chess and the opponent that got stalemated ends up with a 1⁄4 less than normal chess. If it works for Hexagon chess, than I see no reason why it cannot work for normal chess. It's just changing the score, not the game. Even ratings can change when stalemated.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagonal_chess

By combining the above two ideas, drawn games would have a different impact to best moves. Engines would have to take that into consideration. Could be a while before the chess engines claim victories.

If only Lichess could be the first to change the score of drawn games, so that they increase 1⁄4 point when a rating increases. That would be a start to a new era for standard chess. If a players rating increased in a drawn game, then you get 1⁄4 point more. The other player would remain at a ½ point to maintain some standard. So we could have (0), (0.5), (0.75), (1) point scoring system. Having a Beta tournament running with those scores could be interesting. Even if the rated games would not be included in the present rating system. There is no variant to the game except the final scores. Beta tournaments would not change a rating but simulate a change. A beta trophy for the participants would be great too.

What are u gonna do? If it is king vs king left in the position, and it is incremented, are you gonna wait for one of the two players to doze off?

The 2023 rules of chess will apply, until someone requests a feature and even then, it needs to get approved.

If you really insist that every game has a winner and a loser, you can get there without changing any of the specific rules of the game (stalemate, repetition, ...):

All you have to do is to change the nature of the battle by scoring as follows:

- Black is the defending side. If the result is a draw, Black was successful and wins. 1 full point for Black, 0 for White.

In other words, treat every game as an Armageddon game. Not sure if this has been tried already in a tournament, but I think that it would be an interesting experiment.

I like the idea, but I think no score, even a clock score should be bigger than a checkmate score. @Panagrellus

So the drawn games for black could get a boost in score when black's rating increases with the drawn game.

In the database there are more won games for white than black. So the odds are in the favor for white which should be enough proof to not increase the score beyond ½ for white, no matter the rating. So it's black, being the defender that should only get 3⁄4 points, if their rating is lower than the white player.

But they will never do it, because it would look like the score was never fair.

A small change to what a draw is, could also affect ever chess engine. So maybe the game needs an extra way to unbalance the scoring system. Like counting the checks to the king or like the Lucas chess gui has to sum up the game analysis. The higher percentage gets an extra bonus point which could be applied to Wins, Draws and Losses (WDL).

One system that has been tried in chess tournaments is the "3 points for a win" scoring.
(win 3 pts; draw 1 pt; loss 0 pts).

In theory this could be an incentive to take more risks, because one win is worth 3 draws. Not sure if that works out in practice though.

Can an engine be given even more value for a win or all wins set to twice a draw value?
It's a bit out of subject, but might reduce draws caused by engines if they are aware of the values of a drawn game.