Forums

Draw because of insufficent material?

Sort:
GunnarJ

Today (7. July) I played a game that ended in a draw.

My opponents time ran out and I still had a bishop in good health. Is this a legitimate draw or is this chess.com mistake?

whirlwind2011
GunnarJ wrote:

Today (7. July) I played a game that ended in a draw.

My opponents time ran out and I still had a bishop in good health. Is this a legitimate draw or is this chess.com mistake?


If you're referring to the game

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=138104880

then that is odd. I thought the rule about running out of time was that, as long as the potential "winner" has a possible mate by any sequence of legal moves, then a win on time should be declared. In the above game, a win by White is still possible. Does anyone else have any input as to why this should be called a draw?

supercrooky

There is definitely a mate on the board for you, (black king on a1, black knight from promotion on b1, white king on b3, white bishop on b2), but it would have to be done on purpose.  Maybe this is a USCF insufficient losing chances thing? 

whirlwind2011

@GunnarJ: I recommend asking the Chess.com staff about it. Go to their Help/Support pages and submit a question to them about it. They will be able to explain their reasoning behind it, or they may just alter the result of the game, if a mistake was made.

Loomis

chess.com used to follow the FIDE rule that if there was a mate possible by any series of legal moves then the material was sufficient to mate. They have since changed to a different version of insufficient material that is more common in online play. If your material is insufficient to mate against a lone king, it is considered insufficient.

http://blog.chess.com/webmaster/live-chess-gets-some-love

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/quotgame-drawn---insufficient-materialquot-explanation-please?page=1

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/insufficient-material3

zezpwn44

You don't have any "realistic" chances to mate (Uscf rules). Honestly, you're lucky you didn't lose, lol