On Apr 21, 12:31 am, help bot wrote:
On Apr 20, 8:14 am, David Richerby
wrote:

In the fifth game of the Lasker-Capablanca World Championship match
(1921), the same position[1] occurs after Black's 34th, 36th and 38th
moves but the draw was not claimed and Black went on to lose. Does
anyone know why?

Winter says that the threefold repetition rule dates back to London
1883[2] so it seems likely that it applied to this match.
Chessgames.com[3] quotes Capablanca's notes on the game and he doesn't
mention the repetition; nor does Kasparov in volume I of _On My Great
Predecessors_.

One of the odd things about this match was that Lasker
failed to win even a single game. Hence, without hindsight,
it would seem to be unwise for him to make any claim of a
draw, as this would only serve to help Capablanca get a
lock on the title.

Two points:
1. At that point in the match, neither player had won a game -- the
first four were drawn. So one more draw at that point would not have
helped Capablanca win the match.
2. In a way, Capablanca already had "a lock on the title." Lasker
had earlier resigned his World Championship title and given it to
Capa. Therefore, technically, in this match Capablanca was the
defending champion, Lasker the challenger.

Basically, in 1921 Lasker was burnt out. His play in the 1921 match
was way below his usual standard. The war had been hard on him, he was
tired of chess, and after 27 years of him as champion, the chess world
was pretty tired of him. Fortunately, he did recover, extended his
career another 15 years, and restored his standing to go out with
"grand old man" or "beloved elder statesman" status.

Another point is that, according to the rules of the game,
a draw is not some clever way of pocketing prize money
while avoiding a real struggle, but rather it is supposed to
be what happens when neither player can make progress
on the board or when the position is so simple as to
make the odds of winning very, very small.

Looking at the numbers of the moves: 34, 36, 38, it may
be that one side or the other was trying to make the time
control.

-- help bot