chess ending question?

Question

my friends and I are pretty amature chess players and we play against eachother online a bit. I know theres some sort of rule involved where, at the end, if a player doesn't checkmate the other fast enough the game is a draw, but I don't know anything about this rule.can someone explain it to me? I'm sick of ending in draws.

50 moves all game? or 50 moves from when he's the only one left? because that's a lot of moves if you start at the end.

Answer 1

50 moves since the last capture or pawn move. It is called the fifty move rule.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_move_rule

Answer 2

Yes, it's fifty moves. And yes, that's a lot of moves. Now, one move is counted as: white makes a move and then black makes a move. That's one move. After a capture or a pawn move start counting moves to fifty. If someone makes a capture or a pawn move you have to start counting from zero again. There's also the three-fold repetition rule, where if the same position is reached three times in a game(being the same person's turn each time), the game is declared a draw.
There's another rule that may help your long tedious games. Any player, when it's his turn, may offer a draw. If the other player accepts, the game is declared a draw.
Fortunately there are websites with robust chess software(pogo.com for example) that keep track of all those rules for you. They even have an "Offer Draw" button.

Answer 3

Another thing you need to know - you cannot checkmate with:

A King and a Bishop vs a King
A King and a Knight vs a King

So if you play down to that, then you are at a draw.

Also, if you have a pawn on the first or the last rank (ie the edge of the board), and you are advancing, but the other king is in front of that pawn, that is a drawn game also.

If you have a king and pawn, vs a king - and the king is in front of the pawn, with a lot of care - that is a drawn game also, due to the 50 move rule.

For an amateur, a King and Two Knights will be a draw, since in some starting positions, it's impossible to checkmate in 50 moves, and for most amateurs, it's impossible to checkmate with two knights.

So if you are down to that configuration, and you haven't practiced it - you can consider that a draw as well.

Answer 4

The 50 move rule is -- if 50 moves have been played, AND no pawn has been moved in that 50 moves AND, no piece has been captured in that 50 moves, AND the stronger player cannot demonstrate to the tournament director that he has a forced win, . . . then, the weaker player can claim a draw.

Answer 5

Yes, after 50 moves if you cannot checkmate the king when he is the only oppontet left its a draw

Answer 6

If you don't have enough pieces to checkmate, it ends up a draw. You trap the king and he has no moves it becomes a
draw or your pieces can't move and your king is trapped it is a draw.

Answer 7

you must be mated within 50 moves but counting restarts with every pawn move. Hopefuly you know about stalemate. If you have no move except into check, then that is stalemate, a draw.