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Draw by stalemate?

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Vhorazu

Hi, I just finished an (admittedly very messy) game where I was fairly certain I was about to win in the next few moves, however seemingly out of nowhere the game ended with 'Draw by stalemate'.

I'm still fairly new to the game, was this a bug or did I miss something that caused this? Thanks in advance!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/121352843586

AMagirlcom

stalemate is when you or your opponent has no legal moves, but their king is not being attacked

AMagirlcom

and its the person with no moves turn

eric0022
Vhorazu wrote:

Hi, I just finished an (admittedly very messy) game where I was fairly certain I was about to win in the next few moves, however seemingly out of nowhere the game ended with 'Draw by stalemate'.
I'm still fairly new to the game, was this a bug or did I miss something that caused this? Thanks in advance!
https://www.chess.com/game/live/121352843586

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As a newbie it may be difficult to be able to visualise a potential stalemate or justify the stalemate, i.e. "shouldn't I win?".

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Like the other responder noted, stalemate occurs because one side has no legal move to play, but the king is not under check. Checkmate is similar, except that the king is under check at the same time.

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It does get challenging initially to spot stalemates as we tend to focus on our own moves rather than the other player's potential moves. We tend to become complacent to a degree and assume that we are guaranteed a win once the opponent has a king left (or a king with other pawns which cannot be moved).

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Generally speaking, the more pieces we have on the board, the greater the likelihood of accidental stalemates, since more atttacking lines are covered with more pieces (leaving the opposing king with only very few escape squares, or even zero if the king can no longer move).

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I have been in that situation before, and I have also been stalemated myself before. From the perspective of the stalemating player, he should win the game because there is nothing his opponent can do. However, from the perspective of the stalemated player, he has somehow evaded checkmate against all odds, so he should not lose.

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The present rules award draws for both players in a stalemate, although at some point in history the result was a win for the stalemating player.