Endgame

Some friends of mine says that when a player looses all of his pieces (or if the king is the only piece he can move?) then the opponent have to checkmate him in 15 moves or less. If he don't manage to do so, the match will end in a draw.

Can anyone confirm that this is an official rule?

Thanks,

- Arpegius  

Nope, total fabrication I'm afraid.

Generally speaking, A lone king must be mated in 50 moves. If there's another lone King or a King with insufficient material (Knight/Bishop) to force a mate, it's a draw.  

Update: Have pulled the official rules in a later post.

Ok, thanks for the quick reply guys :) But are you sure you've never even heard of a similar rule?

False, a king can be mated in any number of moves depending on how many pieces you have. After 50 moves of no takes or pawn moves then it is a draw. If you had all you pieces then you could move your pawns every 49 moves then sack them every 49 moves then sac pieces every 49 moves. That's a lot of moves!!!!

i'm assuming they got 15 moves mixed up with 50, and any pawn move or capture resets the count.

yeah I heard a total novice say that once so that he could claim a win in a very lost position, now I know to never let such ridiculous thing happen again.

As a Club TD, this matches CLOSEST to the official rules of chess according to the US Chess Federation.

To pull them verbatim from the rule book (5th Edition):

The game is drawn when the player on move claims a draw and demonstrates that the last 50 CONSECUTIVE moves have been made by each side without capture or pawn moves.

If a valid claim exists, the game is drawn regardless of position. Even if the opponent can show an immediate checkmate, it is still drawn.