1

See below my game last night, I am white and I got 3 queens. He only has the king left. We have loads of time left. It was a 30min game.

As soon as I moved my original queen up one space and got him into check mate, the game ended as a draw!

How is this a draw?

enter image description here

|improve this question
  • 3
    Your screen had the reason... Game drawn by stalemate... – SmallChess Nov 22 '18 at 16:18
  • 1
    I didn't realise that was the rules I thought if he cant move then thats a win anyway. Every day is a school day. But it is obvious now. – joshmoto Nov 22 '18 at 16:59
  • 1
    In this situation, you should try to make sure that each move delivers check. With three queens, it's not difficult at all to deliver checkmate without having any non-check moves. – Acccumulation Nov 23 '18 at 5:44
  • 1
    @Acccumulation In fact, with 2 queens vs a lone king is at most mate in 4. With all the extra time, I'd say one would be better off taking the time to learn how to perform that mate instead of getting an extra queen. When I was in grade school I did something similar and was not-exactly-scolded-but-you-know by a coach, he said "Don't play with your food." I didn't even really play much after that but I took that lesson to heart! – corsiKa Nov 24 '18 at 3:56
7

A necessary condition for checkmate is that the king is in check, which is not the case here.

The position in question is called stalemate: black does not have any legal moves, but is not in check. The game ends at this point, and is evaluated as a draw.

|improve this answer
  • 1
    Of course this makes perfect sense. Thanks for pointing out the obvious now. – joshmoto Nov 22 '18 at 15:45
2

It is stalemate (opponent's king can't move anywhere and not in check). Your queen move last move doesn't check his king.

|improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.