I was playing a game in live Chess the other day, it was a great game until the end. I advanced my pawn and promoted it to a Queen. At that point I had a Queen and King and my opponent had only a King. The game immediately ended in a DRAW saying "insufficient material".

Why did that happen ?

I know for a fact that I can checkmate with only a Queen and King.

Is it a glitch in the system ?

If you ran out of time at that point, the game is a draw if your opponent has insufficient material to mate, in this case, only a king.

I don't understand, I had lots of time left to mate him. I did not have insufficient material, only he did. Why is that a draw ?

If you still had time left, I don't know why that message appeared. The only thing that makes sense is if you ran out of time.

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=10966345

If this is the game you're talking about, it's because it was a stalemate.  Your opponent had no legal move to make.

Hey thanks, you are right. At the time I didn't notice the stalemate. Good detective work, how did you do that?

I have a similar puzzling ending:

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=3889178

It also said that there was a drawn because of insufficient material. But he run out of time with 2 Q and 1 K, me with 1:29 time left and only the K.

Of course I had no chance to mate him, but my time management was better!

Thanks,

Dani