pedestrian: it may turn out that doubling cube in chess has some hidden sense ... and this is what I think is true ... let's forget for a moment about all these Abigaill's technicalities ... there are two guys who want to play chess for some stake, and agree that they can raise the stake during the game and if the opponent refuses to accept, game ends and the money belongs to the one who offered the doubling ... could you tell me what is wrong with this scenario ?  With obvious draw situations they just draw, and not offer doubling ...