Opponent runs out of time, but its a draw?

here's an easy way to put it. if you run out of time, the worst POSSIBLE result for you is used. Sometimes it's a draw, sometimes a loss.

There was once a problem in OTB chess when white had K+Q vs. K and white grabbed his queen and placed it on the mating square. At that same moment, black called a flag fall on white and asked the arbiter to declare the game drawn. should the game be drawn?

Time is very important. IF for instance you had only your king and a rook, and he had everything still on the board but his flag fell. you would win. Do to time being part of the game. Yet because you didnt have enough items on the board to give mate at anytime later in the game it was a draw.  I for one would have been happy with the draw in your game. Chalk it up to, you learn something new everyday.

  I had a tourney game many many year ago(94) were I got first place in a quad do to this type of reason.  I was behind in material, but his flag fell. I won the game and the quad. I admit toward the end I was moving faster to get his flag to fall. OF course back then they didnt have the increments, added to games. Which I am still up in the air if I like or not.

Actually if I'm not mistaken the game can also be called drawn in certain positions where, although the material count doesn't inherently make the position unwinnable, the position does. For example:

Since such positions are nearly impossible for a computer to identify, this rule is generally left unimplemented on websites.

What does "helpmate" mean?

It's when one side "helps" the other side mate them. There's a whole category of helpmate puzzles. You usually have to figure out how both sides can work together to mate one of them in so many moves.

I played a game recently. The ending was K & Q v K. My opponent had the K & Q. I had 3 seconds left, whilst he ran out of time. It was a draw. Why??

Fully explained at the start of this thread. (Also see The official FIDE Laws of Chess  : section 10.5). Some other discussions here (e.g. draw-by-insufficient-material2) point up the hidden complexity of this aspect of the game.

I agree with Bone. It's a timed game...if you run out if time then you've failed. I don't play 1 minute games because those aren't chess games. The time factor makes half those games junk. People dance around wasting time way to much

I had this happen to me recently, I was winning on time, had about 4 minutes left, he had less than 45 seconds. so I let him take my last trapped pawn as my king was blocking his other passed pawn. his time ran out and we got the draw. I was pretty butt hurt over it, but now that I've read the rules, it's understandable. But still, running out of time could have easily been considered a loss aswell. if I would have known this, I would have defended my pawn better. 

I think there should be a new variant of chess that whoever is up the most material at the end of time wins.  oR maybe at least for blitz/bullet.  I find it a bit silly in a bullet game you can capture all your opponents pieces except for a single pawn and be so far ahead materially and have mate in 1 and lose because of a millisecond.  Clearly you outplayed your opponent.

"...my opponent is just using his queen to snap up all my remaining pieces, but has no chance to mate me, and runs out of time, while I just have my king left, why is it a draw?

Because you had no chance to mate him!

As a former USCF Tournament Director, I'm very familiar with USCF Rule 14E. Insufficient material to win on time. In part it states, "The game is drawn even when a player exceeds the time limit if...14E1. Lone King. Opponent has only a lone king."

Cry_Wolf :
I think the only way that happens is if you have only a king

TheBone1 :
If this is the case, do you always have a chance to win if you just have a pawn and a king?  Or are there scenarios that your opponent cannot possibly lose ?

Actually, such scenarios exist, even if it's pretty eccentric :

(I cant succeed to insert a chess picture, so I put it as my profil picture)

In this case, what you need is :

- 4 pawns on each side blocking each other (like in a post above)

- No one can capture or be captured by those pawns (else the pawns could go forward)

- for this reason, each side has a bishop on the same square color as their own paws

- the losing side has a 2nd bishop on the same clor, witch means promoted pawn onto a bishop on the right square

- the 3 bishops are on the same side with the losing king, and the other king is alone.