Stalemate
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A stalemate is when a player’s king is not in check, and that player cannot make any legal move.

When this happens, the game is a draw.

Here are two examples of a stalemate:


BLACK
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B
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F
G
H
8
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7
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1
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WHITE

The black king is not in check and Black cannot make any legal move. The black king cannot move to b7, b8, d7 or d8 nor capture the pawn because all of those squares are attacked by the white pawn or white king.

This sometimes happens when one player with just a king and a pawn tries to get that pawn promoted to a queen or rook, in order to be able to checkmate the opponent’s king. The opponent naturally tries to salvage a draw this way.

BLACK
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
8
8
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7
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5
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3
3
2
2
1
1
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
WHITE

The black king cannot move because all of the adjacent squares are under attack by white chessmen. The black pawn cannot move because pawns capture diagonally. The pawn is blocked. The black rook cannot move because it is shielding an attack by the white bishop, and moving the rook would put the black king in check, which would be a forbidden move.