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Today I played a game, and it was my turn in the endgame.

I had only one pawn, which is blocked, and my king left. But my king could move only to a single square legally, as it would otherwise be in check. However, on the next move of mine, I had to put my king back on the square that it came from. I had to repeat these moves 8 or 9 times, with no another moves available. My king was stuck within those 2 squares.

I was confused, and I still am. Eventually, my opponent promoted a pawn to a queen, and afterward, in 2-3 moves, he checkmated me.

Can anyone explain this type of situation? Is it stalemate, or something else?

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    If you can make any legal move, then it's never stalemate. In the case you seem to be describing your pieces were probably just stuck. While not very fun, it has nothing to do with stalemate.
    – Scounged
    Dec 28, 2018 at 20:05
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    Can you post a diagram of the situation you are describing? It would better explain your situation.
    – Wais Kamal
    Dec 29, 2018 at 6:51
  • Sounds like you may have had a case of threefold repetition.
    – Qudit
    May 22, 2019 at 19:07
  • @RewanDemontay You may be right. It's not clear to me if they both repeated or if it was only the OP from how the question is phrased.
    – Qudit
    May 23, 2019 at 0:17

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A stalemate is when, during your turn, you cannot make any legal move. The game then stops as a draw.

As long as you can make a legal move, with any piece, it's not a stalemate. Therefore the situation that you have described is not stalemate, as you had legal moves every single turn.

There isn’t really a name for the situation that you are in, but it is best called a repetition for simplicity’s sake.

Now, if your opponent also made the same moves as well every single time, and it were a tournament it would be called a threefold repetition and you could claim a draw. But only you are repeating your moves.

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  • Yes i mean "soldiers" are pawn. Ok i got this but i have a single legal move with king but in next move i had to put it back and this repeats several times. I had to put my king forward and backward in every move i had to do same.So what can we call this situation.?
    – Naman Gupta
    Dec 29, 2018 at 5:29
  • It has no name. Usually if the situation repeats itself 3 times then it may end in a stalemate by threefold repetition. But not every situation has a name
    – user32204
    Dec 29, 2018 at 13:12

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