Sports - Chess


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CHESS

Check

When the king of a player can be taken by a piece of the opponent, one says that the king is in check. For in-stance, the white player moves his rook to a position such that it attacks the black king, i.e., if black doesn't do anything about it, the rook could take the black king in the next move: we say that the white rook gives check. It is considered good manners to say check when one checks ones opponent (this can be optionally selected in the settings dialog of the matchmaking lobby).

Moves available to a 'checked' king

It is not allowed to make a move that will leave ones king is in check after the move. If a player accidentally tries to make such a move, he will be warned of this and the king will revert to its original position automatically. If check warnings have been disabled in the matchmaking lobby, making this move is legal, but will still result in a loss.

Mate

When a player is in check, and he cannot make a move such that after the move, the king is not in check, then he is mated. The player that is mated lost the game, and the player that mated him won the game (gaining 1 point).

Note that there are three different possible ways to remove a check:

Move the king away to a square where he is not in check. Take the piece that gives the check. Move a piece between the checking piece and the king (in case of a check, given by a rook, bishop or queen)

Stalemate

When a player cannot make any legal move, but he is not in check, then the player is stalemated. In a case of a stalemate, the game is a draw.

Other Rules

There are a number of different ways in which a game can end

Resign

A player can resign the game, which means that he has lost and his opponent has won.

Draw Proposal

A player can propose a draw during his own turn, which will be sent as soon as the player has sent his move. His opponent can then accept the proposal (in which case the game ends and is a draw) or refuse the proposal (in which case the game continues).

Dead Position

If at any time in the game neither of the players can cause a checkmate, using any series of legal moves, the game will end in a draw, provided the move leading to this situation was legal.

50 Move Rule

This rule states that if a game has 50 consecutive moves by each player without a pawn being moved or a piece being captured, the game will end in a draw.

3 Identical Rule

If at any time during the game the exact same board layout (exact same pieces in the exact same squares) occurs for the third time, the game ends in a draw.

Timers

The game can optionally be timed for a number of different durations in the game settings in the matchmaking lobby. The duration selected is the time limit per player, so the actual duration of the game can be at most twice as long.

Playing without a Time limit is the alternative

The timer of each player decreases from the time limit towards zero, and when the timer of one player reaches zero, that player loses the game, while the opponent wins the game, gaining 1 point.

In addition to these times, it is possible to select a time limit per move, which will usually speed up game play, while more advanced games will suffer from the lack of time to consider a move.