stalemate

im bambuzzled, i gets this opponant king into a corner, i us my pawn to move up the board to change it to a queen, wile hes going back and fro in the corner.when i gets my queen, thats it hes done for, then this   message comes up drawn game stalemate.   couldnt believe it he only had a pawn stuck in the far off corner with my pawn blocking it. i spent hours getting him,   i had 5 pawns,bishop,knight, all on the board ,  still cant believe it   check it out if you want,   muddler54= baz30   someone tell me whats going on cheers mick

A stalemate occurs when a player has no legal move.  In your game, the pawn could not move because it was stuck.  The King could not move because any square open to him would put him in check - an illegal move.  Thus, since your opponent could not legally make a move and the game ended in stalemate, which is considered a draw.  You could have avoided this by not promoting to a queen right away.  If you had wasted a move (say you moved your c-pawn instead of promoting your d-pawn), then the King would have had to move back to the 8th rank.  Then, when you promoted your pawn, it would not be a draw because the King would have somewhere to go.  Check the moves list below to see the winning variation.

57. c4 would have been better because he would have been forced to move his King back, therefore, after you Promote you can easily checkmate him.

ADK

I had Black and move in this marvellous position on ICC a few years ago:

Ouch, just looked at it.  What really hurts is that you were mopping up the floor with your opponent until the promotion blunder.  Chalk it up as a lesson learned.  You have to leave your opponent with a move until you actually deliver checkmate. After doing that one time you usually check to see whenever you are in the endgame.  I would have probably played Kf6.  So what if he takes the bishop?  Then you promote and have him up against the side already.

This happened to me the other day.  TWO queens against my king.  I didn't have a chance except I was ahead on time.  When I saw he couldn't close the deal I hoped I could stall him long enough to win on time.  He caught up with me though, and then he blew it.  I was shocked - as I'm sure he was also.

thanks guys, still cant get my head around it, i was surprized that he never resigned earlier,  i would ,   maybe he played it that way,,  anyway lesson learned alright  ill watch out for that in future..... but it still bugs me ..... cheers mick

I took a look at your board again there's another point to consider.  You may find yourself in a similar situation again, but without the free pieces in the opposite corner to use as tempo control.  In that case, if you MUST promote, you have the option to promote to a bishop.  That will allow your opponent to move, and you will have the necessary material to deliver mate.  Mating with two bishops is a pain but the online trainer here has a lesson devoted to it. 

I'm sure he played it with the hope you'd blunder.  Especially there was a recent forum topic about when NOT to promote to queen.  I had a guy tell me the other day NEVER give up, and seeing your game (and my recent stalemate) really drove it home.

thanks again guys , i think that rule stinks,  but ive learned the hard way

and ill just have to get on with it,  sure have a lot to learn with this game.

               cheers mick

the reason i never resigned is cause i fight to the end because your oppenent may make a mistake like you did for this im sorry but it paid of you should never give up and being a scotsman we never give up sorry

no surrender! eh

Yes. that's one solution! Such a plan was hatched from this position:

Here's the full game. The perversion begins after move fifty-eight. On move sixty-six, I declare my intentions. On move eighty-eight, my blunder almost made me the fool (this was a 3 0 blitz game).