Chess Blog Day #8 - Drawing the Game
Update: There's actually another way of drawing the game. See day 17.
We've already seen one way of drawing the game - stalemate. How about the others?
The simplest way of drawing the game is by agreement. One player offers a draw, the other accepts.
Another way of drawing the game is threefold repetition. If the same position happens three times in a game, either player can claim a draw. The same position doesn't have to happen three times in a row, which is a common misconception. It can be at any three points in the game.
For example in this position white is about to be checkmated, but can draw with a tactic known as perpetual check.
The final way of drawing the game is via the 50-move rule. If after 50 moves by each player (100 moves total) no pawn move or capture has been made the game is declared a draw. The logic is that pawn moves and captures can't be undone, while other moves can just be shuffling pieces around.
And that's it. The rules of chess are all done. Time to move onto strategy!
Tomorrow: Piece values.
