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RULES OF CHESS



The chess diagram above is an example of what a chess board would look like at the beginning position of a game.  At the start of the game white is given the advantage of moving first.  The two players will alternate legal moves until one of the following occurs.
  • CHECKMATE - A victor is declared after either black or white's king is put into check, meaning threatened by an opposing piece.  If the king can not make a legal move to another square or is unable to capture the threatening piece it is considered checkmate.
  • RESIGN - A player who is in a lost position will often resign, conceding that they are not able to win or draw the game.  
  • FALLEN FLAG - When playing in tournaments and online you will find set time limits given to each player to make all or a certain amount of moves.  When a player runs out of time it is said that their flag has fallen (This comes from the flag on chess clocks that signals a player has run out of time) and they lose the game.
  • DRAWN - The game can be drawn in several ways. 
    1. First is when the position is deadlocked and can not be won over by either side.    One of the players offers a draw and if the other player agrees, the game is drawn.
    2. Second is the three time repetition rule, where the "exact" same position is reached three times.  Then one player can stop the clock and claim a draw by repetition.
    3. Third is the fifty move rule, where fifty consecutive moves are made without a capture of any kind and without a pawn move leading to the game being drawn.  Note that for certain endings were it is known that a player can win using more then fifty moves and it is determined they are capable of doing so the game may be allowed to continue.
    4. Fourth is insufficient material, this can lead to two types of draws.  The first is when neither player has enough material on the board to mate their opponent.  The second is when a player runs out of time but their opponent has insufficient material to mate leading to a draw.
    5. And finally a game can be drawn by stalemate, for this to happen one of the two players must have no possible legal moves.   This includes the king being unable to move due to all available squares being blocked or leading to check which is illegal to move into. 



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