Saturday, March 09, 2019

[whaooppq] Splitting stalemate

Consider modifying stalemate in chess so it is no longer a draw, but instead sometimes a win and sometimes a loss.

If it's stalemate by traditional rules but there are moves available that put the king in check, then it is a loss for the player to move: one can imagine that the player's king will be captured on the next move.

If there are no moves at all for the player to move, then the result is (dramatically) a win for the player with no moves available.  This is a nod to tradition, preserving the quirk of stalemate sometimes effecting a very surprising outcome for a player at a significant material disadvantage.  However, unlike traditional stalemate (which can threaten to happen as often as in a KQK endgame), this situation will probably be extremely rare.

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