Draw???

Don't worry.

Sred, whats the difference between position and moves?

Thanks, good to know I don't need to worry.

Another subtlety about whether a position is identical or not is if two pieces of the same type, two white rooks for example, have swapped squares with each other but the position is otherwise identical. I read somewhere (can't find the reference anymore though and I may be wrong) that this once occurred in one of Bronstein's games. There was a lot of positional manoeuvring by both sides, and then the position repeated but with two white rooks on each other's squares. I believe that there had been no ruling for this situation before, but that FIDE then ruled that the positions were identical. In other words, the two white rooks, the two black knights, and so on, are not considered to have individual identities.

It's possible to reach the same position later on without repeating the same moves. For example, a queen might move from d6 to b4 to d4 and back to d6. (Hope you don't mind me answering for Sred.)

Thanks for answering! I'm always not sure the difference between position and moves but now I know.

A position is just a board setup. To repeat a position, it is not necessary to repeat moves.

Chess.com is able to produce correctly normalized FEN strings, so they are also able to discover repetitions, just by comparing the FEN strings.

Yes, FEN strings include information about whether any pawns can capture en passant and whether each side has forfeited the right to ever castle with each rook or at all. And the strings don't include information about whether two identical pieces started on the kingside or the queenside at the start of the game or were made from promoted pawns. So that information will cover the requirements exactly.

Whats the most amount of en passant that could happen in a game?

Interesting question.

I think it's theoretically possible for 8 such en passant captures, 4 by White and 4 by Black.

EDIT: No, I think I'm wrong. You'd need to construct a silly game reaching a position with, for example, White pawns on a2, c2, e2, g2, b5, d5, f5, h5 and Black pawns on a7, c7, e7, g7, b4, d4, f4, h4. (Though not all the pawns need to be there at the same time.) Some of the pawns on the fifth rank would have had to capture two enemy pieces each (not enemy pawns!) to reach those positions and I don't think that there are enough pieces to do that.

The answer will be less than 8 then. I don't know.

As you can see, 8 is possible. Can't be more than 8 because a pawn that captured e.p. can't be captured e.p. itself and each pawn can capture e.p. at most once.

Yes, two neat solutions from TBentley and Sred, the first one showing 4 captures by each side and the second showing one side performing all 8 captures.

I stand corrected!

When should you en passant?

I was under the impression that the "Three Time Repetition Rule" wasn't restricted to exactly the third time, but to any number of times greater than two that a position is repeated.

Also; it is not a request, but a proclamation that can't be denied by one's opponent. One needn't ask anything. Also, the draw is NOT automatic - one must make the proclamation.

Furthermore, the proclaimer must be "on move" in order to make the proclamation. So; either the proclaimer's opponent's last move has repeated the position, or, if the proclaimer is the one to repeat the position, he must not actually do it, but demonstrate that he can (otherwise, he won't be on move!).

can you show me an example?

If you have n>3 repetitions, you in particular have 3 repetitions. Pick any 3 positions you like from your n positions.

When it's the best move? What kind of answer do you expect?

Owltuna, people may not be as smart as you. Your a better player but chess.com can have people like me, not as good.

You said that this is getting silly.