One for the Ethics Committee? Or does FIDE even care about such things without a special reason to? I think it's a good example of why chess doesn't get taken seriously. Well, one of the reasons.

Two sisters in their 20's, Tatiana and Nadezhdah Kosintseva, who have played nine games with each other, all draws, all between 7 and 15 moves each, and, apparently, all pre-arranged games. How do we know they're pre-arranged? Because they keep playing the same game over and over again.

Here's their 9 move Guioco Piano game, played twice with Nadezhda as White:

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2007

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2007

Here's their Bread and Butter game. an exchange Ruy Lopez ending in perpetual check around Move 14-ish, played 6 times, with both sisters having played both sides of it:

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2010

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2011

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2011

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2011

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2012

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2012

And here are two unique games, with the same speedy end. A 9 move Guioco and a 13 move Sicilian.

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2006

Kosintseva vs. Kosintseva, 2009


Sponsors, please form an orderly queue at the door...

Give them a break - they are sisters. It's like the Klitchko brothers - they never fight each other.

Well, as you can see, these two DO play each other, so the Klitschko comment is irrelevant.

Trying to make a different set of rules for relatives (i.e. sisters can play games like this, best friends can't, first cousins have to play on another 5 moves, et cetera) sounds like an astoundingly bad idea.

It's not a big deal. Anand and Gelfand drew just as willingly and those two do not look cute or anything alike.

PS - The Klichko's are always relevant!

If Anand and Gelfand drew the exact same game 10 times in a world championship, I bet people would be pretty up in arms. If I were an organizer, there's no way I'd invite them both of these two to my tournament.

I'm not determined to hang these two from the highest yardarm, but I would say that if we genuinely don't care about this rule, that it should be changed. I'd propose changing the rules to make it clear that there's nothing unethical or unsporting about offering a draw before White makes his first move. If you don't want to play, don't clutter up our databases with phony games.

I think what really offends me here is the lack of imagination, playing the exact same simple game over and over. Soltis' Book of Chess Lists shows a pre-arranged game from a Portuguese Championship in which the players contrived to give up all their pieces and one pawn, promote all their remaining pawns, and ende the game with pieces set up as if in the starting position, but on the other side of the board: (White Kf8, Bf8, Ng8, Rh8, and so forth). They put a little art into their game.

I'd propose that instead of just replaying this one game, the Kosintseva's re-play famous games for their draws. Maybe for their next 10 games, they could re-play the drawn games from Anand-Gelfand, move for move. Or pick other great draws. They could replay Alekhine-Capablanca, Game 22. That was a long and complicated one, so I wouldn't object if they brought hand printed notes with them to help play it out (I doubt we care about that rule either). Just because you don't want to play a real game doesn't mean you can't entertain.