Games end in a stalemate or draw..WHY?

Hi Everyone,

I have only been playing for a short period of time and still have a lot to learn about the game...BUT I LOVE IT!!!

I have had a few games recently that I thought I should have been on my way to a clear victory only to have the screen pop up and say the game was drawn by stalemate.

Here is a link to one of the games:

https://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=1615149523

In that particular game I had 3 queens and 2 pawns and my opponnent had his King and 3 pawns. There was plenty of time left.

Can someone please explain what the reason the game would be called a stalemate?

Thank you,

Frank

Your opponent had no legal moves left. His pawns were blocked and any square his K moved to would put him in check, which is illegal.

You may want to brush up on the basics of the rules. 

In addition, setup the board on your own as it looked after your move 43 ... a1=Q

and work out how to mate him with just what you have on the board.

This is a common problem when you get too much heavy artillery on the field of battle, you often end up stalemating your opponent if you are not careful. After 43 ... a1=Q you had more than enough material to mate your opponent. (You actually had enough before that, with just a Q & K.)

Hi Frank. 

As you know, the position above was reached in a game you played. The above position is a draw by the stalemate rule. 

In the above position, the game is drawn by stalemate because it is you opponent's move.  Your opponent controls the white pieces as you know and is not able to move any of them!

White's pawns are pushing downwards but they cannot move because there is a piece infront of them blocking their advance.  They cannot move!

The opponent can now only hope to move the king.  However, due to the three queens you have, the king is not able to move.  This is because your queens control all of the bordering squares of his king but not the square the king is on.  If the king were to move to one of these controlled squares, he would be in check!  It is a chess rule that says kings are not allowed to move onto a square controlled by the enemy hence is not allowed to move into check.  This rule makes all of his king moves illegal and impossible. 

As you can tell now, it is whites move and he has no possible moves to make.  This draws the position by the stalemate rule.  This position would be checkmate if the white's king was in check ( if the square he is on is controlled by the enemy) and you would have won.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for the quick reply!

I definitly have to brush up on the basics. I would have thought that since he had no moves available to him other than a move that would cause a checkmate I would be the winner.

I have put myself in 2 or 3 similar situations over the past 25 or so games. will have to be more careful going forward.

Thank you again!