why is this draw because of insufficient materials

Well. 

I have played a game in bullet, and I was losing and my opponent ran out of time. and it said it was a draw (timeout vs insufficient material). well I am not caring about the points or I dont care that I did not win. I just want to know why it was a draw. the position was this:

well, I can understand that it is highly unlikely that black wins this game given enough time. but the material is not insufficient!! as it is POSSIBLE to checkmate white king if white just blunders the game very badly. but there are some lines that lead to checkmates like this:

so, again, I am not a sore loser. I just want to know why is it a draw by INSUFFICIENT MATERIALS.

The site uses a simple material check when the other player runs out of time. If the player with time does not have sufficient material to mate, it's a draw. The site doesn't use the FIDE implementation of mate possible by any series of legal moves but something more similar to US Chess rules.

https://support.chess.com/article/268-my-opponent-ran-out-of-time-why-was-it-a-draw

So the question begs to be asked then, could you have been able to win that game with the material you had on the board, if the answer is no then it's a draw when your opponent runs out of time.

well, what if the opponent is really stupid?

And also, in the position of main post, the opponent really needs to cooperate, but for example,

consider a position like this.

I am saying this as a chess amateur, that if black here goes Kf3, it is very possible for me to panic and think my rook is under attack (while it is not) and try to move the rook. in such situation, given a little bit stupidity from my part, I might move Rh2, resulting in a position that is mate in 2 for black. 

I had a similar thing happen. So I know it's the official fide rule, but to me it seems like it's flawed. There are some situations that could lead to checkmate but the algorithm probably takes a look at how many moves it would take to complete and ends the game based on that. To me it cheats the person that still had time on the board out of a time out win.

white times out and its a draw

The rules apparently stem from the basics with the question in mind, can one mate?

KB vs K - No it is impossible - insufficient material.

KN vs K - No it is impossible - insufficient material.

KNN vs K - In most instances no, but it is possible - Sufficient material.

What are you talking?

Is not possible to make any checkmate with the bishop and the king you had.

The position you had is totally different that the "positions you psoted" where is possible to make an incredible big blunder and to checkmate with bishop and king.

There is not any way you can checkmate with that bishop and than alone king in that position. You can try to imagine whatever blunder white does and it is impossible because of the position of the pawns and the bishop. Even if you make the opponent move to your way to make it perfect there is no way yo are gonna mate him.

So ofc it was a draw because of insufficient material vs time.

This is why the FIDE rule needs to be used. There are tons of positions, even forced mates, not blunders, forced mates that become unwinnable if the losing side deliberately flags:

Using a "quick material count" renders basic endgames unwinnable even with forced mates. This seriously needs to be revised, and I don't care how "rare it is". Black could deliberately flag and get a draw instead of a loss knowing he's mated, which is beyond ridiculous.

king and bishop cannot deliver checkmate, so u cant win, only lose or draw. a time out for someone that can mate if time had allowed can't lose but can draw so game is a "draw"

yeah if you're going to deliberately take what I'm saying out of context...and NO it can't deliver checkmate, that example is king bishop and a pawn dude... so when you only have a bishop and your opponent is out of time it's a draw since you don't have a move to use their pawn etc.

king and bishop can deliver checkmate look

Going back to the original position, what I understand is if you get moves to play CAN YOU CHECKMATE if no opponent pieces existed? (except king)

now give white infinite moves where white cannot check unless it is mate. you can also move black's king anywhere, but in this case it is unnecessary.

so...

this is a possible position, so you win. 

now take this position:

white runs out of time

it is a draw because:

this is the closest you can get to mate. 

final position

whoever time outs the other person wins because you remove the opponent pawn then promote and finally checkmate (with king and queen/rook).

 

Did this clarify your situation? Thanks for asking

 

 

btw sorry i changed the colour of the bishop in the second example but you get the point ( overpowers )

the only bishop endgame wouldn't be a draw by timeout, just insufficient material because it would be impossible no matter what. if black had a pawn the draw would probably happen by timeout if black is in trouble

Brurh

Well, the answer is simple:

If you want to play chess which adheres to the official FIDE rules, then chess dot com is not for you.

I don't know why this site chose USCF rules l. It's just as easy to program a system that detects whether the total position in insufficient material rather than 1 side only positions where the firstside can never win are the following:

KBKB bishops on same color

KNKQ/any number of queens

KBKQ/any number of queens/rooks

KBKR/any number of rooks/queens

Alter the 1st set of pieces in any other way and white will always have a theoretical way a to win, so it should be a draw if black flags. Even KNKP where it's not an a or h pawn is still a possible win:

The guy has literally shown one of the mates that are possible. In the very first comment.

Here's a very realistic example of how king and bishop can force a win:

Black can see that he is mated after kf8 and deliberately let his time run out and get a draw! How is that chess?

Another issue is winning on time in a dead position. The following position is an example of a dead position where the side whose time runs out would lose on this site.

It is impossible to write a function that identify every possible dead position, but one could change some rules to mitigate it:

- Allow draw offers/resignations for a reasonable time (for example 10 seconds) after a flag fall or allow the players to agree to change the result. As this would only be availible after a flag fall, the risk of rating manipulation by abusing this system would be minimal.

- It should be a fair play violation to intentionally exploit that the site is not able to recognize dead positions etc.

It is not possible to replace a human arbiter, but we can at least try to approximate it.