According to Chess.com, you still have to act fast as a lone king a king and two knights. As two knights and a king can't force a mate against a lone king, it is still possible. So if your opponent only has a king and two knights and you run out of time, you actually lose rather than draw.
Draw by timeout vs insufficient material?
Sort:
@128
This is a forced checkmate, a win per FIDE, or per USCF,
but on chess.com black can get away with a draw by letting his clock run out of time:
An even simpler and more realistic example:
If white in a time scramble pushes the a pawn and falls into that mating net, he can deliberately flag and get a draw. And this isn't some obscure tablebase win or unrealistic grotesque study, just a simple mate in 7 found in beginner Endgame books.
Apr 14, 2024
0
#125
tygxc wrote:
@128
This is a forced checkmate, a win per FIDE, or per USCF,
but on chess.com black can get away with a draw by letting his clock run out of time:
Not true anymore. It's a win for white here:
https://support.chess.com/en/articles/8557986-my-opponent-ran-out-of-time-why-was-it-a-draw
King + two knights exception
Although a king and two knights is considered insufficient mating material for other situations, a timeout against these pieces does not lead to a draw. If your opponent only has a king and two knights, and you run out of time, you will get the loss, not the draw. This is due to a king and two knights being technically possible to checkmate an opponent, even though the mate can't be forced, it is still possible.
@131
Good that they now corrected that. That still leaves other cases.
This is a forced checkmate, a win per FIDE, or per USCF,
but on chess.com black can get away with a draw by letting his clock run out of time:
That is fascinating, and this position is supposedly a mate in almost 30:
Forgot the exact move order, but it's basically shuffling the king until the black pawns arrive and then moving the knight around. I wonder just how drawn out and complex you can make that single knight Endgame, how pawns can you add and double and make it still a really long forced win?
Ah I understand it now and Stockfish surprisingly does to, it's a mate in 16:
h6 instead of h5 reduces it by 5 moves because of this:
It ends up being blacks move here and white doesn't have to do as much maneuvering. Now imagine having the skill to see that forced mate, and black just deliberately flags in a forced mate position and getting a draw!
Sep 26, 2024
0
#130
so like when you run out of time, it's like you can't move anymore. so if you don't have mating material, you can't checkmate your opponent even if they run out of time and can't make any moves
rlscientist wrote:
so like when you run out of time, it's like you can't move anymore. so if you don't have mating material, you can't checkmate your opponent even if they run out of time and can't make any moves
Yes, but the thing is this site only considers the pieces you have if your opponent runs out of time, and the result of that piece against a lone king, even if your opponent still has other pieces where that single knight or bishop could mate a boxed in king. So on this site, if your opponent only has a king and knight, you automatically get a draw if you flag, even if smothered mate is inevitable for example.
Nov 3, 2024
0
#132
I had a winning position.. 2 passed pawns, a rook and king. My opponent was down to only King. Both of us had around 20min left on clock but the other person didn't make a move for 5min in an attempt that I ma resign getting frustrated. I didn't resign but went on to scroll IG. After like 15min I saw draw by timeout vs insufficient material and there the last move played on the board was by me. So I'm guessing he must have ran out of time but then why is it a draw when I had the Winning position!?!?!?
yuvi1024 wrote:
I had a winning position.. 2 passed pawns, a rook and king. My opponent was down to only King. Both of us had around 20min left on clock but the other person didn't make a move for 5min in an attempt that I ma resign getting frustrated. I didn't resign but went on to scroll IG. After like 15min I saw draw by timeout vs insufficient material and there the last move played on the board was by me. So I'm guessing he must have ran out of time but then why is it a draw when I had the Winning position!?!?!?
Bizarre !
I can only imagine that while you were browsing IG, the server thought you had disconnected (abandoned). The result would then be a draw.
Note that you both have time on the clock when the game declared a draw.
Nov 4, 2024
0
#134
Contact support, but Lagomorph might be correct. Switching tabs, and for such a long time, is not advised. As for the opponent, you can report him for stalling when you present your case. If he did this before, they will eventually close his account.
20 days ago
0
#135
What if you have a knight and an opponent's a/h pawn on the side? Wouldn't that be a theoretical win for the side with the knight the the side with the a/h pawn times? Because white could put his king and pawn on the edge of the board and you can trap their king and mate. Plus here's a link to prove what I mean: Why is this a draw by timeout vs insufficient material? I literally have forced mate in 1, clearly my material is sufficient. : r/chessI believe chess.com should clearly fix this issue.
19 days ago
0
#136
wrote:
What if you have a knight and an opponent's a/h pawn on the side? Wouldn't that be a theoretical win for the side with the knight the the side with the a/h pawn times? Because white could put his king and pawn on the edge of the board and you can trap their king and mate. Plus here's a link to prove what I mean: Why is this a draw by timeout vs insufficient material? I literally have forced mate in 1, clearly my material is sufficient. : r/chessI believe chess.com should clearly fix this issue.
There are some edge cases where there might be a forced mate but as far as I'm aware there are no plans to check all such games to look for that.
@128
His game time was over, but you had no series of legal moves to checkmate him, so you got a draw instead of a win.
I got it. Thankyou.