I was about to checkmate my opponant, when up came drawn by stalemate. How???? This isn't the first time this has happened to me. Can anyone explain please.

I can't explain but have had it happen. I went to move a rook to checkmate the opponent and it came up a stalemate even though it was clearly a forced mate.

If your opponent has no legal moves and the king is not in check, this is stalemate and the game is a draw.

 

Look carefully at the final position ofyour game. Notice that your opponent's king cannot move without being in danger from one of your pieces. Also, none of your pieces are currently attacking the king, so the king is not in check. Since your opponent can not make a move, but is not in check, the position is stalemate and the result is a draw. 

You didn't really need the second queen, it's trivial to checkmate with king and queen. Just use your queen and king to restrict the opponents king to an ever smaller area of the board, whilst ensuring before each move that you give

your opponent a safe squarre to move to, thus avoiding stalemate.

Queenie, I think the following link will be of great use to you (I looked at the final position you refer to):

 

http://www.chess.com/article/view/cornering-and-avoiding-stalemate

 

Hope this helps Ma'am!

thanks!

 

I think your question about stalemates has been answered, but I think there's another issue you should look into.  You need to learn to recognize when you have checkmate in one move.  I looked at your game with Zhane, and 30.Qd1 and 45.Qf1 both would have been checkmate.  There are many tools online that will be able to aid you seeing these opportunities.  Remember to consider all of your options before deciding on a move.  Good luck!

Thank you all so much for you answers, Yes I do miss a lot of suitable moves but I am learning all the time. Thanks again.

queenie wrote:

I was about to checkmate my opponant, when up came drawn by stalemate. How???? This isn't the first time this has happened to me. Can anyone explain please.

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 a stalemate is when your opponents king has nowhere to go and he or she has nothing to move and there is no check,

 chesscombat

chesscombat wrote: queenie wrote:

I was about to checkmate my opponant, when up came drawn by stalemate. How???? This isn't the first time this has happened to me. Can anyone explain please.

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 a stalemate is when your opponents king has nowhere to go and he or she has nothing to move and there is no check,

 chesscombat

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 Thanks for that timely response.

go queenie - there is a new rule 

No player can claim stalemate unless agreed to by the opponent if the opponent still has a queen on the board.  

its when no one can move

spair75 wrote:

go queenie - there is a new rule 

No player can claim stalemate unless agreed to by the opponent if the opponent still has a queen on the board.  

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 What?  Stalemate is not claimed.  Stalemate just happens.

Yes, guitarman, that is a stalemate.

no guitar man - black can claim the 'harrassment move' rule - meaning white needs to move back his queen.

It is, of course, possible to make up one's own rules for chess, even change the size or shape of the board or add new pieces with new kinds of moves. But then it is not chess! Such new variants are known as "fairy chess." In the middle ages, stalemate was a victory for the side imposing it; but so as long as chess is chess in its present-day modern form, stalemate is stalemate and is a draw.

spair 75, si vous voulez jouer un jeu de votre seule invention, n'attendez pas que les autres le jouent avec vous.

There are many times I have heard people discussing resigning when they are losing.  I have insisted that you continue to play until the end.  The end being checkmate, draw, stalemate.  I had one game where my opponent clearly had the advantage and should have won.  I continued to play the game out to the conclusion.  I was hoping that my opponent would make a mistake and I would be able to gain the advantage and win.  Well he made some mistakes, but not enough for me to win.  He made enough for me to go for stalemate and cause a draw avoiding a loss.  Causing a stalemate meanings thinking cleverly and sometimes making unusual moves in order to create stalemate.   I am even sure there has been a puzzle featured on www.chess.com showing a stalemate.

Stalemate is a frequent theme in endgame studies. On the elementary level, the defense by a king against a king and pawn to keep the pawn from queening ends in stalemate.

if the king is not in check and cannot make a legal move such as depicted in the above diagram it is a stalemate

guitar_man_03 wrote: is this a stalemate?

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yes plain and simple