I had a curious thought today: is it possible for a game of chess to END in the STARTING POSITION? And specifically, without the players mutually agreeing to a draw or one of the players resigning.
This is kind of a silly question, but I realised that I don’t think I’ve ever seen this described before. After a brief moment to reflect, yes, it is possible.
Effectively, we can make use of the knights, which are the only piece that can develop prior to any pawns move, and hence, are “reversible”; and draw by threefold repetition.
If we assume that the initial starting position of the board doesn’t count as a “seen position” (given that it exists prior to move 1), then we need to move both the king’s and queen’s knights at least once to achieve the first threefold repetition being with the starting position.
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Ng1 Ng8 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Ng1 Ng8 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Nb1 Nb8 1/2-1/2
Adventures of a Chess Noob 