Fwiffo: You wrote: "That the black player could have prevented perpetual raichi doesn't prove white deserves the draw.". No it doesn't prove that white deserves the draw. It proves that black doesn't deserve the win! :-)

If it is really asking too much to ask a black player to stop the draw as well as to prevent white winning, why is it that the very best tablut player on the BrainKing site has so efficiently stopped nearly everyone drawing against him? (I know that he hates the perpetual raichi draw, but that hasn't stopped him being 400 BKR ahead of anyone else AND with less than a 1% draw ratio.)

I know some people play for a draw from the beginning. If you are good enough as black, you will stop them. If you are not good enough, they will draw against you. When you become good enough, you will begin to stop the draws.

I believe that perpetual raichi is only a problem if it can be demonstrated that white can always force it from the start position. To the best of my knowledge that has not yet been done. If it is ever done then the game rules are flawed and will need changing. Until that time, I am happy to play both sides of the game with the current BrainKing rules.