Draw by Stalemate

[computerages]

Hello everyone, I am new to chess, started playing it a couple of days ago.. and now I have sorta problem.. Whenever I tend to win a game... I always end up drawing the game by stalemate... Any suggestions of checking the queen so the game did not end up being drawn?

 

thx..

[husmusen]

I've always found checking the opponents king to be the better strategy

 

If you meant checking(with the) queen, that's why you get a stalemate, no single piece can checkmate a free king. You either have to block your opponents king in by some means i.e. his own peices, or use more than 1 of your peices to force mate.

 

http://www.chesscentral.com/novice/play_chess_chess_strategy.htm

 

For beginners I recommend the two castles of doom. (Or a Castle and a Queen) as a good way to matt.

 

Also play slowly when you can, a single game of chess where every move is thought deeply about is worth ten hurried games.

P.S. Welcome to the true world game

 

Husmusen

[YT2095]

the simplest rule of thumb is to Always keep the king in check when it comes to the end game, but rem also, there`s the 22 move rule too, when they are down to just the king, there can be 22 moves after that. if after 22 moves there`s no checkmate, the guy with only the king wins!

[CPL.Luke]

hmmm never heard of that one

[Sisyphus]

Yeah, I don't think that's a rule. However, there is the 50 move rule, wherein if there are no captured pieces or moved pawns within 50 moves, either player can claim a draw.

[5614]

What! Do you play chess? How can you not have heard of draw by stalemate!?

 

Imagine your opponent only has a king, and you corner it such that it is not in check, but if it moved it would be, then the king cannot move, therefore your opponent cannot move, so it's declared a draw. Stalemate is where your opponent cannot move, the real life situation of that is that your opponent cannot move without putting themselves in check, which they're not allowed to do.

 

OK, so the solution... I used to do this a bit, it really gets quite annoying doesn't it! The only advice I can really give is to stop and think. I can, when it comes to the end game, think a few moves ahead, which can really help. However when I was in my 'stalemate' phase I couldn't think so far ahead (this was a while ago, when I was younger). If you can't think many moves ahead then my best advice would be just to think of your opponents very next move.

 

Think to yourself "if I move to that square (and I find it helps to picture it) then what can my opponent do?". If they only have one king they can only move into one of 8 spaces (or fewer). In your head take your move and then imagine you are your opponent and see what they can do.

 

I used to say "he could go there" or "he can't go there" (ie. it would put him in check). If he can't go anywhere and he's in check then you win. Just one other thing would be that sometimes I would be in a situation where I would actually have to make a defensive move just to avoid stalemate. I would totally screw up my position and the game would take an extra 5 minutes, but you have to if you want to win.

[CPL.Luke]

I meant the 22 move rule

[5614]

Oh, my bad, me neither!

[blackhole123]

Ive heard of that rule.

[Nemesio]

...but rem also, there`s the 22 move rule too, when they are down to just the king, there can be 22 moves after that. if after 22 moves there`s no checkmate, the guy with only the king wins!

 

This is not true, at least not in the formal rules of chess (you can invent all house rules you want).

 

A person can only win if either 1) you put the king in checkmate, or 2) your opponent resigns.

 

You can force draw from a losing position if 1) you can avoid checkmate for 50 moves (which means a white-black pair) without a pawn's moving (at which point the number resets), or 2) you get put in stalemate (which means there is no move available such that the king will not be putting himself in check). A draw can also be claimed when there is 'insufficient mating material,' generally K+K, K+KB or K+KN. There are a few other obscure 'insufficient mating material' combinations which are probably unnecessary to explain. Lastly, a draw can also be claimed when a position is repeated three times on the board (and by repeated, that takes into account the potentialities to castle and the availability of en passant moves by pawns).

 

To computerages:

 

To improve your endgame, you should probably study various endgame strategies including the principals of 'opposition' and how to advance pawns successfully (or prevent their advance), as well as the ways in which rooks (especially) and minor pieces can control parts of the board. A K+KQ endgame should be the most straightforward in which you can force a mate, so if you are struggling with this, you might want to study the strategic strengths and weaknesses of pieces (how to use them to control the board), because a firm grasp on the pieces will make mating with them self-evident.

 

I'm a subscriber to the site http://www.redhotpawn.com (you don't have to pay to play, but you only get six games at once) which is a correspondence chess website, but there are many other free online chess sites, too.

 

The more you play, the better you will understand the pieces, but understanding subtle chess strategy is a life-long process (and I'm a neophyte to be sure).

 

Nemesio

[Dak]

pcages: how does it end up in stalemate? is it a massacre, with both sides loosing so many pieces that the game is unwinnable, or is it that whenever you get to a point from which you could win, your opponent tricks you into putting him in a position from which he cannot move, thus sneakily forcing a stalemate rather than loosing?

 

or one of the other sneaky means to get stalemated?

[Bignose]

This is not true, at least not in the formal rules of chess (you can invent all house rules you want).

 

A person can only win if either 1) you put the king in checkmate, or 2) your opponent resigns.

 

You can force draw from a losing position if 1) you can avoid checkmate for 50 moves (which means a white-black pair) without a pawn's moving (at which point the number resets), or 2) you get put in stalemate (which means there is no move available such that the king will not be putting himself in check). A draw can also be claimed when there is 'insufficient mating material,' generally K+K, K+KB or K+KN. There are a few other obscure 'insufficient mating material' combinations which are probably unnecessary to explain. Lastly, a draw can also be claimed when a position is repeated three times on the board (and by repeated, that takes into account the potentialities to castle and the availability of en passant moves by pawns).

 

To computerages:

 

To improve your endgame, you should probably study various endgame strategies including the principals of 'opposition' and how to advance pawns successfully (or prevent their advance), as well as the ways in which rooks (especially) and minor pieces can control parts of the board. A K+KQ endgame should be the most straightforward in which you can force a mate, so if you are struggling with this, you might want to study the strategic strengths and weaknesses of pieces (how to use them to control the board), because a firm grasp on the pieces will make mating with them self-evident.

 

I'm a subscriber to the site http://www.redhotpawn.com (you don't have to pay to play, but you only get six games at once) which is a correspondence chess website, but there are many other free online chess sites, too.

 

The more you play, the better you will understand the pieces, but understanding subtle chess strategy is a life-long process (and I'm a neophyte to be sure).

 

Nemesio

 

 

 

If you can show the forced win, there is no 50 move rule. But, you have to show that you know how to do it. K+N+B vs. K is a forced win, but in the worst case it could take well over 100 moves to force it. And if you don't know how to do it, the polite thing to do is to offer a draw. There are some other forced wins that take a long time. K+N+N vs. K is a draw, but K+N+N vs. K+P is a forced win, but it takes perfect timing. You have to bottle up the king and still leave him moves to make with the P, so that he cannot stalemate himself, like in K+N+N vs. K.

 

These are pretty advanced, but endgame study is usually the most beneficial for new players. To put it simply, the choices you make in the middlegame determine what kind of endgame you end up playing, so being more proficient in the endgame can allow you to steer the middlegame to the endgame you want.

[tartanpaint]

In chess I have got into a bad hbit of being left with a King and only a King and then slowly taking my opponants pieces and overall suviving an intolerable amount of time. This has taught me that if a King on its own is normally weakest on the edges of a board, but only sometimes it depends also on the opponants pieces as well but bear that in mind computerages