13 move stalemate

In my most recent OTB game, the endgame involved my rook, a knight, and a bishop against a lowly king and pawn. My opponent stated if I took his pawn then 13 moves after that would be a stalemate.  As a matter of fact, it was late at night and we figured I had made about 9-10 moves without checking or checkmating his king. I was 3 moves away from queening a pawn when he made that rule of which I was somewhat skeptical. Is it true?

Stalemate is when one player has no legal move but is not in check. When it occurs, the game result is a draw. I guess your opponent made up this "rule" out of the really existing 50-move rule - after 50 moves without a piece captured or a pawn moved, the game can be claimed a draw.

But if he captured the pawn, the counter would start from 0 again so there is no such rule. Your opponent was just making something up cause he didn't want to lose. That endgame is insanely easy to win. Just sac a bishop or knight for the pawn, win with the rook, game over although he should have resigned immediately in such a position anyways.

Its winnable in 30 seconds so even if it was late at night, he shouldn't have said all that...

It gets worse later on as you get better too. You may end up playing games that are equal at around 11-12 pm and end up blundering cause your tired....

LaVaRook, it was not via computer or over the net. It was a live over the board game. I agree with Donnie, He made up a rule because he was more experienced, I on the other hand  was relatively new to the game. We were drawn 2 games a piece and this was the fifth and final game. He had to save face. We should have played for the 50 move rule. As a matter of fact I was gonna queen a pawn which would have given me some extra artillery!

I know it was an OTB game but I'm just saying that he made up a rule so he doesn't lose.

If you mean the 30 seconds part of it, I assumed you were playing with a clock but even if you weren't its still easy to win it in 30 sec and if you queen a pawn, more like 7 seconds with a Q+R mate.

Note that if you make any capture or pawn move the counter starts over and he probably took advantage of you not being as familiar with the rules, thats all.