lichess.org
Donate

Drawing a match with a mate in 1

Hi, I just played a game in which I had a forced mate next move in a common endgame position, but I only had a knight, so my opponent let his time run out and the game was a draw. Is there any way to award a win to a player in such a situation even if he has 'insufficient' mating material?

http://en.lichess.org/UGPawo3K/black#124
That should've been a win. You can still checkmate with only a knight if your opponent also has chess pieces (next to the king), like you showed in your game. That isn't insufficient mating material and the FIDE rules say that it's a win for you. You played very well those last moves, by the way.
Yeah, that's what makes it frustrating. But I guess this situation is extremely rare compared to positions where only a helpmate is possible, as mentioned in the other discussion. I just felt cheated of a win which I think I deserved.
Can't really do anything in these sorts of situations unless there's an intelligent adjudicator be it a person or some SF hack.
Actually I just looked at the game and saw he let his time run out, rough luck mate.
schachfl, yes, there was a long discussion, and this point was raised:
http://en.lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/no-mating-material-shouldnt-win?page=2#14
http://en.lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/no-mating-material-shouldnt-win?page=4#39
http://en.lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/no-mating-material-shouldnt-win?page=5#41

Clarkey, I'm inclined to agree with your comments on that other thread: that if there could be development time to make a change such that "mated in N" takes priority over "insufficient mating material", that would be an improvement. (And it would only be necessary to mate search in positions currently evaluated as "insufficient mating material".)

Or another idea (again, development time permitting) would be to add a way to disable autoflag during a game.
Shouldn't be too hard to determine if a position has mate in N in endgames like that. :S

All you're doing is - in that particular case; a rare case - asking SF if the side with 'insufficient material' has forced mate.
At least you named and shamed him, which is something.

I've gone right ahead and blocked him. I don't need that kind of headache further on down the road!

Nice finish from you, by the way.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.