Draw or Not?

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I am the tournament director for a “ladder” tournament at my local club. We play a game/week over two months. The following happened last night and I wanted some feedback on what was the proper course of action.

Player A is in time trouble and makes a move and claims draw by three-fold repetion of position. Player B agrees that the position has occurred three times, but he tells Player A that the position must repeat three consecutive times, so it is not a draw. No one gets me, the TD. The game continues and player B wins on time.

My game finished last, so by the time I heard of it, Player B had left.

  1. If I can speak with Player B before next round is paired next week, and if he agrees the position had repeated 3 times when Player A made the claim, I would be inclined to rule the game drawn. Is this correct?

  2. If he disagrees that the position repeated, I would think I could not rule the game drawn even if the scoresheet showed otherwise as the draw claim would have to have made before time expired.

Thanks.

2

  1. Since Player A did not call you to the game at the time of the claim he cannot now make a claim after the game is over. It also sounds like from your statement that he made his move and punched the clock, so the claim would be mute even if he called you to the board.

  2. Correct, but see my answer to 1.

3

No. A player wishing to claim a draw by threefold repetition must make a proper claim to the TD at the time. By making another move he forfeits right to make the claim (though he may do if the position repeats again). You can warn B for giving wrong information to his opponent – but A didn’t have to believe him.