Stop The Stalemate

The stalemate is an interesting but king-saving weapon, or to be exact, a trick designed to save the king when you are heavily down material.

Many people tend to get excited in a way that when they are up by lots of material (usually up a queen, minor piece and rook, etc.) they tend to get excited in a way that they will often try to get more material. But if the other player gets rid of his/her material (or even a computer's material) then the king has a high chance of stalemate, but also has a high chance of checkmate. Today, we will focus on stalemate. 

If you are up material, STS or Stop The Stalemate, hence the name of this blog post. 

If you are down material, sacrifice pieces or block all of them (this is not the simplest way--I prefer to sacrifice) and edge the king to the a- or h-files, thus limiting the king to five squares. Corners are easily mated, so watch out for checkmate.

One game I did this morning at approximately 11:00 Pacific time, I accidentally stalemated my computer opponent who played a blundering move in the Two Knights Defense--once I missed something and I lost the first game but drew the second.

Knowing this, the stalemate is a thing to watch out for.