What is a stalemate?

Stalemate is either a relief to you or a huge disappointment. A stalemate in chess is one of the four ways to achieve a draw (a tie game). A stalemate happens when a player cannot make any moves. In chess you are never allowed to skip your turn; therefore, if you cannot move the game is over in a tie. Look at the position below: can you find how white is able to force a stalemate?

If you thought of Queen taking h7 you are correct. Black has no option but to take the Queen and White now cannot move: stalemate. Moving the Queen to g4 or any other square where it can get taken doesn’t work because black does not have to take the queen…therefore the game doesn’t have to end in stalemate.

A stalemate can be a huge relief to you if you are losing but also a huge disappointment to you if you are winning. In a losing position you must know how to force a stalemate. if you are winning, you must know how to avoid giving your opponent a stalemate. You really don’t have to worry about a stalemate until the end of the game. You can practice forcing stalemates with chess puzzles that we have posted online.

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