Draw!

Playing through a games collection on this dreary Sunday afternoon in January, I came to this position.  White has an extra piece but black has a dangerous-looking mobile pawn centre with no less than three passers.  White to move.  Intrigued to see how it turned out, I turned the page and... "Agreed drawn!".  White offered, black accepted; and it all happened behind the scenes during the adjournment.

Had this happened today in a game between two top players, there would surely be protest from amongst the paying public.  Why would you not want to watch this lop-sided position play itself out?  The game itself had earlier been a disaster for black, who'd blundered a whole rook just out of the opening.  Surprisingly he played on and his persistence paid off.  White, who was the author of the games collection, reckoned he was in poor form; that's putting it lightly; even I usually win games against my peers with this kind of extra material.

In case you're interested, the game is Botvinnik - Bronstein, 9th match game, 1951; and I'm referring to  Botvinnik's Best Games, Volume 2: 1942 - 1956.  Botvinnik was +1 in the 24-game match at the time but the match ended drawn, so Botvinnik retained his title.

For what it's worth, when Komodo and Stockfish played the position, they made a draw.  Whether the punters' frustration was expressed in the media of the time, I don't know.  But probably not at the match venue itself, which was Moscow; protests by citizens at the time weren't well tolerated by the authorities.

There's a short, grainy video of the match venue here, and if you look a little further, you'll find another video where Yasser Seirawan lectures on this game; I'm just about to give it a go.