Terminology
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- A "book draw" or a "theoretical draw" is a position that is known to result in a draw if both sides play optimally.
- A "positional draw" is an impasse other than stalemate, where a draw is salvaged despite a big material disadvantage (see fortress (chess)#Positional draw).
- A "grandmaster draw" is a game in which the players quickly agree to a draw after making little or no effort to win (see draw by agreement#Grandmaster draw).
Andy Soltis discusses the vagueness of the terms "draw", "drawish", "drawable", "book draw", "easy draw", and "dead draw". In books and chess theory a position is considered to be a draw if best play leads to a draw – the difficulty of the defence is not taken into account. Soltis calls these positions "drawable". For instance, under that criteria the rook and bishop versus rook endgame is usually a theoretical draw or "book draw", but the side with the bishop usually wins in practice. In this position from an actual game, the only move to draw is 124. Rf8! White actually played 124. Rd8?? and lost (Soltis 2010:12–13).
Read more about this topic: Draw (chess)