t Sign Up Log In

Articles
Articles

Sign Up Log In

In this article, you will learn ways a chess game can end.

How Chess Games Can End: 8 Ways Explained

CHESScom
Updated: Apr 23, 2019, 8:43 PM | c 373 | For Beginners M English <

There are many ways to end a chess game.

Sometimes the result is clear. However, there are situations when some players have
questions about the result or why the game suddenly finished.

To clarify these situations, here are eight typical ways to end a chess game.

Win/Lose:

Checkmate
Resignation
Timeout

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 1 of 16
:
 Draw:

Stalemate
Insufficient material
50 move-rule
Repetition
Agreement

Win/Lose:
There are three main ways to win or lose a chess game: checkmate, resignation and
timeout. Check out the games and videos below for examples.

Checkmate

One of the most common ways to end a chess game is by checkmate. This happens
when one of the players is threatening the other king and it cannot move to any other
squares, cannot be protected by another piece and the checking piece cannot be
captured.

If all of these conditions are met, the attacking player wins via checkmate.

Can you find the way Black delivered checkmate in one move?

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 2 of 16
:
 The checkmate above was really easy. However, in elite tournaments like the PRO
Chess League, sometimes the checkmate appears in less obvious forms.

In the following Twitch clip you will see an amazing checkmate with two knights by
Zhao Jun.

Drills: Practice Thematic Checkmates | Lessons: Winning the Game

Resignation

While some games end by checkmate, there are many that don't get that far.

Sometimes one of the players believes that he or she will be checkmated soon and
resigns instead of playing out the game. In the following game you will see that after
White's move the checkmate is imminent, so the player with black pieces resigns.

Can you find the move that made Black resign?

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 3 of 16
:
 However, pay attention! Sometimes we think we are losing when we are not. In the
following game, the 2018 U.S. chess champion Sam Shankland was playing against
the super-grandmaster Anish Giri in the 2019 Tata Steel chess masters tournament
and he resigned in a drawn position!

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 4 of 16
:
 Timeout

Timeout is a painful way to lose a chess game. It does not matter how much of an
advantage you have on the board or whether you have checkmate in one move. If you
run out of time, you automatically lose the game if your opponent has the minimum
material required to force a checkmate. If your opponent does not have the minimum
amount of material for checkmate and you run out of time, the game is a draw—even
if you were winning.

Managing your time and using it carefully across the game is critical.

Below you can see an example from the Pro Chess League where Andrew Tang was
able to win by timeout in a very complicated position.

Timeout can also happen by disconnection, when one player is no longer connected
to the server. In this case, a timeout loss is assigned to the disconnected player. At
Chess.com, we give the disconnected player a fair amount of time to reconnect, but
not too much to make the opponent wait long for the game to finish.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 5 of 16
:
 Draw:
While most of the ways to win or lose a chess game above are clear, draws can be a
little more complicated. For people who are just learning to play chess, understanding
rules like stalemate or insufficient material can be difficult. The following explanations
should make things more clear.

Stalemate

In the following example, White has one extra pawn. But when White tries to push it to
the very end, it leaves the black king without any legal moves, and so the game is a
draw by stalemate.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 6 of 16
:
 H An example of stalemate in chess.

Article: What is Stalemate in Chess | Definition + Examples

Insufficient material

There are cases where one player has more pieces than the opponent toward the end
of the game. However, that is not always enough to win because some combinations
of pieces cannot force checkmate.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 7 of 16
:
 The game is declared a draw whenever both sides do not have the "sufficient
material" to force a checkmate.

Insufficient material (no checkmates are possible or no checkmates can be

forced):

King vs king

If both players have only the king, the draw will be automatically declared, as neither
of them can win.

H Endgames where there are just two kings are a draw.

King + minor piece vs king

A king and a minor piece (bishop or knight) cannot win the game alone because there
is no possible way to checkmate with just these pieces. The game is an automatic

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 8 of 16
:
 draw.

H Checkmate with just king + knight or bishop is not possible.

Lone king vs all the pieces

What happens if one of the players has all the pieces but the other player has just one
king and the first player runs out of time? In this example, White should win—but ran
out of time!

Since the player with the black pieces can not checkmate with just the king, the game
is also declared drawn. This is very important to point out as running out of time will
not always mean losing the game—sometimes it's a draw.

This is sometimes called "timeout vs insufficient material."

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 9 of 16
:
 H If White runs out of time, Black would not win because it has no pieces to force checkmate.

King + two knights vs king

With this combinations of pieces checkmate is possible, but it cannot be forced. The
game is a draw.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 10 of 16
:
 H The king with two knights won't be able to checkmate unless the opponent helps.

King + minor piece vs king + minor piece

Checkmate with a king and a minor piece vs another king and a minor piece is
possible as long as the two minor pieces aren't bishops of the same color. But the
checkmate cannot be forced without help from the opponent. The game is drawn.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 11 of 16
:
 H You cannot force a checkmate with these minor pieces.

If you're wondering how a checkmate (with help from the opponent) is possible, see
below. Since the checkmate cannot be forced, though, the game is a draw.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 12 of 16
:
 50 move-rule

The 50 move-rule allows either player to claim a draw if no capture has been made or
no pawn has been moved in the last 50 moves.

The longest chess game ever played could not have happened today, as it would have
been declared a draw much earlier. In earlier times, 100 moves were allowed without a
pawn move or a capture.

Repetition

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 13 of 16
:
 The threefold-repetition rule says that if a position arises three times in a game, either
player can claim a draw during that position. This rule was created to avoid games
repeating indefinitely because players were making the same moves again and again.
In online play, this draw happens automatically on the third repetition.

Agreement

When both players decide they want to draw the game, there is a draw by agreement.
Most of the time this is because they believe that neither player can obtain an
advantage.

But draws by agreement can be controversial if they come quickly in a game when
both players want a draw due to a tournament situation.

To offer a draw on Chess.com, press the draw button.

In the example below, Grischuk and Mamedyarov agreed to draw in just 16 moves.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 14 of 16
:
 Some tournaments now implement the 40-move-rule, which avoids any draw offer
before reaching move 40.

Do you have any questions about ways to end a chess game? Let us know in
the comments below.

More from CHESScom

Chess Played Quick - BlitzChamps New Features, New Records,

Hyper Bullet Arena And... New Champions?

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 15 of 16
:
 https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-chess-games-can-end-8-ways-explained 19.5.24, 10 51
Page 16 of 16
: