Draws And The Server

So I have this question about how the server handles insufficient material draws. (I didn't put this in the "Help and Support" section because there isn't a problem. It's just a question.) I was playing a 3+0 game and after White's 44th move, I had an insufficient material draw. It was not a typical insufficient material situation, the kings were blocked off by pawns that couldn't be moved or captured. But the server allowed the game to continue. I started racing to the 50 move rule and on move 88, the game was called a draw by threefold repetition. My question is, had I actually ran out of time, would I lose or would the server call it a draw? Here's the game below; https://www.chess.com/live/game/137812126544

That was a draw by triple repetition of position.

The same position was reached after black moves 67, 82, and 88

@Matin_Stahl: Yes I understand, but the game theoretically should have ended after move 44 due to insufficient material. There's no variation that can lead to checkmate; there are no captures or pawn moves available on the board, which begs the question what would have happened if I had timed out after move 44?

That’s not what insufficient material means.

Insufficient material means there is not enough material for a checkmate.
A pawn is enough.

You reached a positional draw, but there was still sufficient material.

That is not what insufficient material means. Insufficient means no one has enough material to checkmate. If there are any pawns, then that is not insufficient material.

@SacrifycedStoat: Insufficient material means there is no variation that leads to checkmate. In other words, even if the other guy tries to let you win without resignation, you literally can't win. In the position after move 44, there are pawns on the board, but there is no variation that leads to checkmate because the pawns can't move nor can they be captured. There are also no checks on the board because only the kings can move and everything else is a pawn. Therefore, the position after move 44 is an insufficient material draw.

I think it's not "insufficient material", but otherwise you're right, it's a dead draw where neither side can win or lose.

An arbiter would declare a draw, but the software is too dumb to do that.

I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but the pawns do actually count as sufficient material, as SacrifycedStoat mentioned.

You did reach a positional draw — but if you had run out of time before hitting the 50-move mark without a capture, it would’ve been a loss on your end. That’s why good time management is so important in situations like these.

The 50-move rule is definitely there for moments like this, where neither side can really make progress. That being said, since you reached a threefold repetition first, the game was officially counted as a draw. - Good on you!

@Megan-C-Anderson: Well you don't have to worry about offending me or anything and I appreciate your compliments on how I handled the situation. But with regard to the rule, about 15 years ago I too believed that you couldn't claim insufficient material with pawns on the board, but then I studied the rule and the rule clearly implies that insufficient material depends not on what's on the board, but on what variations can lead to checkmate. The FIDE rule 9.6 states that "The game is drawn when a position is reached from which a checkmate cannot occur by any possible series of legal moves. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing this position was legal." If one refers to the USCF version of the rule, they go into more detail about specific insufficient material situations, (such as two lone kings). But even so, it mentions among those situations on 14D4, "No legal moves leading to checkmate by opponent".

It's really hard to code for all dead positions, with otherwise sufficient material. It likely not worth the coding time or the computational load to try and implement (it would essentially need to be checked after most moves) .

The system relies on triple repetition of position and 50 moves with no captures or pawn moves instead.

Dead positions are handled under FIDE regulation

5.2.2 The game is drawn when a position has arisen in which neither player can checkmate the opponent’s king with any series of legal moves. The game is said to end in a ‘dead position’. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the position was in accordance with Article 3 and Articles 4.2 – 4.7.

We won