One of the most famous draws in chess history occurred in Vienna in 1870, between Carl Hamppe and Philipp Meitner. The opponents' play was remarkably accurate, too, though improvements have been found in the computer age. It would not be easy to find these improvements OTB though, especially in a rapid (15' + 10") game. So when Rauf Mamedov and Aleksej Alexandrov repeated the game on their way to a draw in round 6 of the World Rapid Championship last month, were they just taking a round off, or was one player or the other trying to outfox his opponent? The two aren't countrymen, they're of different generations (Alexandrov is 15 years older) and tiredness was unlikely to be a factor as it was the first game of the second day. So one would expect a normal game from them, but repeating the Hamppe-Meitner game smacks of pre-arranged draw. Does anyone know?
In case you're curious, you can replay their game here.