Yes, this is a simple matter:
1. You can't win because you are out of time.
2. He can't win because he has insufficient material.
The message is for the opposition really, had he one pawn you would lose. The worst possible defence is assumed for the player that runs out of time.
Incorrect, one must have "sufficient material" against the worst possible defence.
A lone king cannot win, regardless of time considerations. That is the rule at the moment, and probably for the forseeable future.
There is also the FIDE rule of "winning by normal means", but I guess that is ignored here. Certainly the case on ICC.
Bye John S
I had 30 seconds to checkmate, but couldn't achieve it, it took me 5 mins after the game to find the checkmate but ive lost it now. Could somebody show me the quickest checkmate from the position shown above. Black is to move.
Thanks
to win, you have to:
a) keep the BK pinned to the back rank with the R.
b) force Black to move his King into opposition with yours
c) then play R - back rank.
This is mate.
The procedure is very simple, but can be a bit time-consuming as B is able to run away along that back rank before being forced into oppostion.
Here's an example:
Hello, I have just finished a really exciting game which ended as displayed below. My time reached 0 but my opponent still had 2 minutes 20 seconds left on his timer. Instead of losing on time, I received a message saying "Game over - Game drawn - insufficient material". I have done a bit of research into this message but it says that it only occus with opponent having king and you having king and either bishop or knight. Can somebody explain this further to me. I was white and my opponent was black.
Thanks