Two of them - stalemate and insufficient material - take effect automatically: the game is over the moment they occur. The others have to be claimed, and that distinction matters at a tournament.
The side to move has no legal move available, yet its king is not attacked. The game ends immediately in a draw - regardless of material.
This is the most painful rule for beginners: a player with an extra queen takes away every square from the enemy king, forgets to give check, and half a point evaporates.
How to avoid it
Before every queen move in a won position, check that the enemy king still has at least one square. If it has none and you are not giving check, that is stalemate - the technique of the basic mates.
From the other side, stalemate is a defensive resource: in a hopeless position it is often the only thing to play for, and studies are full of it.
Some material simply cannot force mate, so the game is drawn the moment it arises. The combinations are:
Two knights against a lone king are a special case: mate is theoretically possible but cannot be forced, so play normally continues until the fifty-move rule settles it.
The practical lesson for the endgame: when simplifying with a material edge, do not end up with a single minor piece. An extra pawn is worth more than an extra bishop in that situation.
If the same position occurs three times, a draw may be claimed. Three conditions have to match, and people forget them:
The repetitions do not have to be consecutive: positions occurring at different points in the game count too. In practice the claim usually comes from perpetual check, where the same position returns every two moves.
Important: this is a right, not an automatic result. If nobody claims, the game continues.
If fifty consecutive moves by each side pass with no capture and no pawn move, either player may claim a draw.
The logic is simple: if nothing has changed irreversibly in fifty moves, neither side is making progress. Any capture or pawn move resets the count to zero.
In practice the rule matters in technical endgames - bishop and knight against a king, or rook and bishop against rook - where the winning method runs long and the count becomes a real constraint. It also has to be claimed, and at an event with notation the players track it from their own scoresheets.
A series of checks from which the king cannot escape. Formally there is no separate “perpetual check” rule - the draw arrives through threefold repetition - but every player uses the term.
It is the most common practical saving resource: a player who is losing gives check after check, the position repeats, and the game ends level. Which is why in a winning position it is worth spending a move to remove the possibility of endless checks before it appears.
The players may agree at any moment. The correct procedure: make your move, then offer the draw, then press the clock. Offering before moving hands your opponent extra information for free.
For repetition and the fifty-move rule the procedure is formal, and getting it wrong costs you the claim:
Which is another reason to keep an accurate scoresheet: without it a repetition claim cannot be verified - other formal situations.
A draw gives each player half a point. That is simple; what is less obvious is how it affects the table.
Six: stalemate, insufficient material, threefold repetition of the position, the fifty-move rule, perpetual check (through repetition) and agreement between the players. Stalemate and insufficient material are recorded automatically; the rest require a claim by a player.
The player to move has no legal move available, but their king is not in check. The game ends in a draw immediately. It is a common way to save a lost position and a typical beginner's mistake when mating with the queen.
If the same position has arisen three times - with the same player to move and the same rights to castle and to capture en passant - a player may claim a draw. It is not recorded automatically: you have to stop the clock, make the claim and prove it from the scoresheet.
If there has been no capture and no pawn move in the last 50 moves by each side, a draw may be claimed. The counter resets on any capture or pawn move. Like repetition, this is a draw on claim, not an automatic one.
No. If the opponent has insufficient material to give mate, a flag fall is recorded as a draw, not a win. This rule comes up often in blitz and surprises people who did not know about it.
Make your move, offer the draw and only then press the clock. The offer cannot be withdrawn, and a reply move by your opponent means it is declined. Repeated offers in every position count as a distraction, and the arbiter is entitled to step in.
Threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule are proved from the scoresheet, and in blitz and rapid no score is kept. So in practice such draws in fast formats are recorded only by the opponent's agreement or if the arbiter was watching the game.
No arbiter skills required. The app takes over the part that usually stops people from running tournaments at all: who plays whom in each round and who finishes first.
The bot is constantly improved based on real tournaments. If you need a feature that isn't there yet, message the developers right inside the bot with the /support command. Many features appeared exactly because organizers asked for them, and useful ideas get added quickly.
Rules - etiquette, lateness and forfeits, basic checkmates, glossary.
At the board since childhood: hazy about his rating, precise about every rook he has blundered. Counts an evening as a good one if the opponent stayed to talk afterwards instead of rushing off to check with an engine. Message →
