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In other words, after white's move, black king is not in check. It is now black's move, but any move that black could make results in check. Is this a checkmate? Is there a chess term for this situation?

user2652
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    I just lost a game where I was not in check mate. My king had no moves but I could have moved my pawns. They gave my opponent the game when his Time ran out. WTF. – Kenneth pratt Oct 19 '19 at 02:00
  • @Jossie Calderon, the IM only edited the question, and specifically, he just added three tags, and nothing more. He did not ask it. – PhishMaster Oct 19 '19 at 11:08
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    @Kennethpratt, interesting, you could post that as a question, but please give more details such as where was this played and who "they" are. – itub Oct 19 '19 at 13:02

4 Answers4

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  • Putting your king in check is not a legal move as you've realized.
  • Of course, if Black has any OTHER legal moves he can and should play one of them!
  • If a side TO MOVE does not have ANY legal moves, that would be a stalemate, not a checkmate (which is delivered only by the side making the check)
shivsky
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    ...and stalemate means the game ends as a draw. – RemcoGerlich Mar 09 '14 at 09:00
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    Which means that white just screwed him/herself out of a victory. Oops. :) – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Mar 09 '14 at 12:45
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    There are some endgame positions where stalemating the opponent prevents you from losing, so stalemate can be something worthy to achieve for the one who does. – chaosflaws Mar 18 '14 at 13:31
  • Yeah at first it was a punishment for not being able to checkmate properly, but then also allowed for forced draws. It is kinda a good thing though - you have to try even if you are winning, and sacrificing pawns for activity is not that risky. – Ferazhu Apr 03 '23 at 11:58
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It's called a stalemate, which is a draw.

zscoder
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No, if there are no more moves available to black then it is a stalemate.

If black has other pieces which have moves available to them they must move those pieces.

maxwell
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What you are describing is what is known as a "stalemate", a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal move. Moving the king into check is not a legal move. This is one of the ways a chess game is drawn.

CConero
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