When is a Game Won?
May 31st, 2010 | 
Author: A game of chess is won when one player successfully puts the other player’s King into checkmate. Even people who have never played chess before recognize the words “check” and “checkmate” as belonging to the game. However, beginners to chess may not understand the difference between the two.
Check
A King is considered to be in check anytime an opponent, on the next move, could take the King if nothing is done to protect the King. For example, if a King is in the same row as an opponents Rook and there are no pieces between the King and the Rook. When the King is in check, you are required to make a move that will protect him. This move could be any of the following:
- Move the King out of harm’s way.
- Move another piece into harm’s way between the King and the Rook. The downside to this is that the opponent may use the Rook to take that piece and your King will be in check again. A way to get around this is to protect the King with a piece placed directly next to him. This will allow the King to capture any opponent’s piece attempting to capture the protection.
- Capture the Rook with another of your pieces, ending the threat against the King.
A King in check cannot be ignored. In addition, the move you make to remove the King from check cannot place the King into another check. Also, during play, a player is never allowed to deliberately place the King in check.
Checkmate
When a King is placed into a check that is impossible to resolve, then it is considered checkmate. Consider the above instance. If you were unable to move the King without placing it in check from another opponent piece, and you had not pieces that could be moved between the King and Rook or be used to capture the Rook, then the situation would no longer be a check, but would be checkmate. Checkmate signals the end of the game. The player with the King in checkmate loses the game, and the player performing the checkmate wins.
Stalemate
A stalemate occurs in chess when one player has no available move without putting the King into check, but the King is actually not in check yet. This usually means that only the King remains on the board, and any move of the King puts him in line to be captured by an opponent piece. When a stalemate occurs, the game is considered to be a draw. If you are playing for points, each player would be awarded half a point for a stalemate game.
Other Types of Draws
There are several other ways for a game of chess to end in a draw. They include:
- Fifty Moves: Either player may choose to end the game in a draw if each player has made fifty sequential moves without any piece being captured and without any pawn being moved. The fifty move rule does not constitute an automatic draw. A player must recognize that the requirements for the draw have been met and claim it.
- Impossibility of Checkmate. This occurs when there is no possible way, using legal moves of the game, for either play to place the opponent’s king in checkmate. This rule is also referred to as the rule of insufficient material, because the most common reason checkmate becomes impossible is that there are not the right pieces on the board. For example, a lone king versus a lone king on the board cannot result in a checkmate of either king.
- Threefold repetition. A draw can be claimed by a player when he is about to make a move that will cause an exact replica of a move that has already occurred twice. For the move to be considered repeating, all of the pieces on the board must occupy the same positions as the previous two moves. If two of the same type of piece have “switched” places, the threefold repetition rule still stands, because the move opportunities for each piece are still the same.
- Draw by agreement. This type of draw is also called draw by mutual agreement. Generally, advanced players can tell toward the end of a game that neither will be able to win. Many times, it is obvious that the game will end with Impossibility of Checkmate or Fifty Moves, and a mutual draw is declared to save time.
- Perpetual check. This occurs when one side has unlimited opportunity to put his opponent in check, but can never managed to achieve checkmate. This means that the game could go on perpetually with one opponent checking the king, and the other opponent using his move to uncheck the king. If a player does not claim the perpetual check draw, then the game will likely end with the fifty move rule anyway.