i dont remember where but i heard once that if you have nothing left on your board but your king and you can successfully complete 21 moves without getting into checkmate that the game is called a stalemate is this an actual rule or was i decived
There’s a 50 move rule that if no checkmate or pawn move has been made, it’s a draw. But no 21 move rule that I’m aware of.
You were completely and thoroughly deceived. There is absolutely no such rule. (In fact, it’s worth noting that King+Bishop+Knight against a lone King should win, but it takes precision to execute the mate in fewer than 50 moves.)
There are some positions (listed in rule 14 of the rulebook) that constitute insufficient mating material (such as King+Knight against lone King) and are drawn.
In any case, none of these is called a stalemate. A stalemate is when you have no legal moves, but are not in check.
Alex Relyea
Would have to say you were decived.
It could have come from a local club rule with blitz, as blitz rules are different in each and every local club. As it would be a draw not a stalemate with X number of moves. As stalemate is stalemate when the King cannot make any legal move. The claimant could have felt the rule was correct because of the understanding he (or she) understands the rules of the club.
Never use any local club rules for any ratable games. As the local club rules are never written down, change from time to time.
There was a slight mis-spelling on an earlier response. There is a rule that if 50 moves (by both players) go by with no captures or pawn moves then a draw can be claimed by either player. Whether or not a player has a lone king is immaterial, as it could be claimed with no piece having ever been captured (locked pawn position and players just shuffling behind their sides of the pawn wall).
I don’t have the rule book in front of me so I can’t verify whether or not the loss of castling priveleges to either side by either player is still included in that. It was included in earlier editions.
Even if the 51st such move will be a checkmate, the draw can be claimed by either side once the 50th such move is determined (i.e. if black made the last capture/pawn move on move 37 then once black determines move 87 by playing the move then either player can claim the draw - if black wants the draw then he should stop the clock and get the TD so that he doesn’t risk having completed move 87 by starting white’s clock and then having white immediately play move 88 to negate the draw attempt by either capturing, moving a pawn or checkmating).
Castling should not be a problem, as its’ with a Rock and King. During my game studies, never have come up with a castling without a pawn move some time during the game. As it would take 16 moves just to capture every single pawn, or the amount of moves to build a pawn chain nobody can break. Would find the act of castling on queen side or king side as very unnatural during the counting of the 50 moves.
This applies to threefold repetition, but not to the 50-move rule.