Drawing comparisons

Leko has now drawn 28 of his last 30 games, and it could easily have been all draws. The win came in an endgame where Karjakin inexplicably blundered away the draw, and the loss after a mistake against Topalov in Zug. Still 28 draws in 30 games means a draw percentage higher than 93%.

The opposite to Leko is Morozevich. In 2012-13 he has a draw percentage below 45%. But that’s nothing compared to his glory days: in 2006 Morozevich scored below only Kramnik and Topalov in Elo performance. He did this with a draw percentage of 26%, +27 -10 =13 in 50 rated games:

http://members.aon.at/sfischl/cl2006.txt

The difference between Leko and Morozevich is not a new one either, a dozen years ago (2001) their numbers looked like this:

Leko 83% draws (+3 -4 =35)

Morozevich 33% draws (+17 -14 =15)

http://members.aon.at/sfischl/cl2001.txt

It is no wonder Morozevich has more fans than Leko.  At one time Leko was concerned about his drawing tendency.  Perhaps Leko has decided to embrace the idea of drawing as many games as possible.

Watching the Zurich Challenge live stream, i have already heard Leko referring to his drawing tendency twice. With humour, but he clearly also is a little frustrated by it.