I'm new at chess and still learning the rules. The other day I was playing a friend of mine, and it got to the point where I had only my king and queen and he had only his king and bishop. I forgot the exactly how we got to this point, but when we did, he said it would be stalemate and result in a draw. I argued that we keep playing and I wound up putting him in checkmate. He didn't make any fatal or illegal moves; I just beat him. My question is, why would this be a draw if I could win? Everything I find says that when either side has only a king and bishop/knight it results in a draw. Of course I may have misunderstood, but it seems like one side can get punished for simply taking out the other sides pieces.
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1Your friend was wrong. You have every right to play on in this situation. – Dag Oskar Madsen May 29 '16 at 18:42
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Queen + king vs King + bishop is won endgame for the side with the queen. You have every right to play for a win. – AlwaysLearningNewStuff May 29 '16 at 18:47
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It's a draw when one side has only a king and bishop and the other side has only a king. Then checkmate isn't possible. In your case it obviously was. – RemcoGerlich May 29 '16 at 19:31
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1You can win by force, but you have 50 moves in which to do it, unless a piece is captured or a (non-existent) pawn is moved, which resets to counter. – Tony Ennis May 29 '16 at 22:19
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Although the question might have been worded a bit more clearly, the questioner indicated that he's new to the game. I noticed that it had 2 down-votes, so I've up-voted it in order to at least partly balance them. The question shows research on his part, is reasonable and useful for beginners, and is fairly clear. – Charles Rockafellor Jun 22 '16 at 14:21
If I undestand well you had a king and a queen, and your opponent a king and a bishop.
It is not a stalemate nor a draw, unless you reach a position like this one, for example:
[fen "8/8/8/8/8/6K1/8/5Qbk b - - 0 1"]
A stalemate occurs whenever the player having the turn has no legal moves and he's not under check.
A draw happens when there's no sequence of legal moves (even if they are absurd ones) than can lead to a checkmate, when the same position is repeated at least three times, or when at least 50 moves have been done without a pawn move or a capture.
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@AlwaysLearningNewStuff thanks for the edit! I was looking the site for help about inserting FEN and PGN diagrams and I could not find it – sharcashmo May 29 '16 at 18:50
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1
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it's black to move, FEN has this information but the diagram doesn't show it – sharcashmo May 31 '16 at 9:40
