How to Draw in a Chess Game

Video Transcript

"There are several other ways also in which a game can be drawn. The first one is known as draw by lack of force. Lack of force means that neither side has sufficient material to actually complete the game and to win. Now if you had a situation which could arise where you simply had the two kings left on the board there would be a lack of force. One king cannot attack the other king to put the king into check because by doing that it would itself move into check. Therefore, there is nothing that they can do and the game is drawn by lack of force. The next thing is something called perpetual check. Perpetual check is something that happens when a player is on the verge of losing the game but has a chance to keep checking the opposition player and by doing that they can keep going with one check after another check after another check and thus avoid letting the other player actually check mate them and finish the game. The other way, another way of doing this is the so called three times recurring position and this is when games get into a situation where really nothing much is happening and the players are simply pushing the pieces back and forth over the same squares and the same position does arise, the identical position three times in the course of the game and that is another way of drawing the match. Another way of drawing is by the 50 move rule. The 50 move rule states that a game can be drawn if no piece is taken and no pawn is moved within a period of 50 moves. In other words a game that is simply not going anywhere can be drawn under that rule and there is one other way also that a game can be drawn and that is by both players deciding that they cannot win and they are happy to settle for a draw and indeed at the higher levels of chess, especially at the master level that is how many games probably 50% end is with an agreed draw."