Draw by agreement

In chess, a draw by (mutual) agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE laws of chess is article 9.1. The vast majority of drawn chess games at the amateur club/tournament level and higher are draws by mutual agreement rather than the other ways a game can be drawn (stalemate, threefold repetition, fifty-move rule, or impossibility of checkmate) (Schiller 2003:26–27).

The FIDE laws state that a draw should be offered after making the move and before pressing the game clock, and marked in the scoresheet as (=) (see Appendix C.13). Draws made at any time are valid, however. If a player makes a draw offer before making their move, the opponent can ask them to make their move before deciding. Once made, a draw offer cannot be retracted, and is valid until rejected. A draw may be rejected either verbally or by making a move (the offer is nullified if the opponent makes a move). The actual offer of a draw may be made by asking directly "Would you like a draw?" or similar, but players frequently agree to draws by merely nodding their heads (Schiller 2003:26–27). In international chess, the French word remis is an offer of a draw.

A draw by agreement after only a few moves (usually before much battle has been done) is called a "grandmaster draw". The name is a misnomer because grandmasters are not more likely to draw this way. Some chess players and fans believe short grandmaster draws or even all draws by agreement are bad, but attempts to stop or discourage them have not been effective (Hooper & Whyld 1992).

Although draws may be offered at any time, those not made as outlined in article 9.1 run the risk of falling under article 12.6 which states: "It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever. This includes unreasonable claims or offers of a draw." This rule is applied with the arbiter's discretion: a player loudly offering a draw while his opponent is thinking may well suffer a time penalty or even forfeit the game, but it is unlikely that a player would be penalized for, say, offering a draw in a lifeless position when it is not their turn to move (Schiller 2003:26–27,30).

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