Entries by Olavi Jaggo

I've been thinking when should a Dark Chess game be declared a draw.

Obviously, games might occur where none of the opponents has a reasonable chance of winning, but one of them stubbornly refuses to agree to a draw and insists on playing on. The problem is well known in Standard Chess, and therefore there is a number of rules to determine under which conditions a player can demand that a game be declared a draw.

There are three occasions when a Standard Chess game can be declared a draw against the will of one or both of the players:
1. Stalemate;
2. Upon request of the player who is on the move, if the same position is repeated for the 3rd time, it’s been the same player’s move each time and the rights of castling and en passant capture have not been lost;
3. Upon request of the player who is on the move, if each player has made 50 moves without a capture or a pawn move. In certain cases (e.g. King + 2 Knights vs. King + Pawn), the number of moves required is 75.
As you can see, in the first case, the game is always a draw, regardless whether or not the players want it, whereas in the last two cases, the game can only be declared a draw if one of the players requires it. (In chess software, rules 2 and 3 are often enforced automatically, but never in chess tournaments.)
I should also mention that some national chess rules include a fourth draw rule, according to which a game is declared a draw when a checkmate is theoretically impossible, e.g. King vs. King, King + Bishop vs. King etc. However, FIDE rules at the time of writing state that if one of the players objects, the game must be continued until the 3rd repetition rule or the 50 move rule becomes applicable.

Now, let’s look if and how those draw rules can be used for Dark Chess games. After that, let’s discuss the possibility of other means for defining draws.