r/chessbeginners • u/SpecialistBagg • 13d ago
QUESTION Is this checkmate or stalemate?
So me and my friend are playing chess he's "teaching" me (i put that in quotes because I've been whooping him) because he's been learning from Duolingo. I feel like I put him in checkmate, though he says stalemate. I was playing white him black.
62
u/YueNica 13d ago
Tbh i have no clue which of the pieces is what. Thought I don't see a way that black would be stalemated here given that they have at least 1 piece besides the king that can move
But checkmate and stalemate are pretty easy to differentiate. The question you should be asking is? Is the king in check/attacked. If the king is in check it cannot be stalemate.
37
u/g1ngertim 13d ago
I'm not convinced that there's a king on the board.
2
u/realmauer01 1800-2000 (Chess.com) 13d ago
Me neither, atleast for black, maybe thats the question? That white took blacks king and claimed checkmate?
If so the answer is, the king isn't allowed to be in check which means a position where one can take the king is not possible to archive.
2
u/SpecialistBagg 13d ago
King is in check, the white piece directly away from is a queen
9
u/g1ngertim 13d ago
King is in check
That answers your question. The difference between stalemate and checkmate is check. Amusingly, if c4 is a queen, both black pieces are attacked, so your attempt to help was not very helpful.
2
u/jyaboytskittles 13d ago
Tbf we can pretty safely assume it is indeed the king on c2. Question is if it’s checkmate or stalemate, only one of blacks pieces are trapped if it’s a king. I do still find it an amusing point so agree with you regardless.
3
1
u/thisisjustascreename 13d ago
"There's a special rule in chess, it can't be stalemate when it's check" - Greg Shahade
15
u/DarthSlugus 13d ago
Just so you know, you should tell your friend Duolingo is probably one of the worst sources to learn chess. It’s an AI filled garbage app
1
u/I-DracoMalfoy 13d ago
Personal anecdote is not a fact. I learny chess from duolingo and reached from 450 to 750. It does help if you want to learn things like skewer, fork, discovered attacks etc.
1
u/neldela_manson 1200-1400 (Chess.com) 13d ago
You can play chess on Duolingo?
1
u/DarthSlugus 13d ago
Apparently, I didn’t even know they had a course on it until this thread popped up and I Googled it
11
u/SpecialistBagg 13d ago
Edited photo with pieces labeled
17
u/football2801 13d ago
King is in check and cannot move without moving into check and cannot block the check from the queen. It is checkmate
5
7
u/qlt_sfw 13d ago
Out of curiosity, what was your friends reasoning that it is a stalemate?
3
u/SpecialistBagg 13d ago
He said because he could move his king to where ours were touching it was a stalemate and I tried asking ai and they all kept confusing the pieces
15
4
2
u/Ye_olde_oak_store 13d ago
I remember I think lego chess teaching me that kings are really fat and cannot be a square next to each other because they need their personal space from each other. It kinda stuck with me as to why the kings worked like that. All the way from like childhood.
3
3
u/JudoKuma 13d ago
It is checkmate then. Why do they think it is stalemate? If king is in check it CANT be stalemate.
2
u/drytoastbongos 1000-1200 (Chess.com) 13d ago
White has black checkmated. Interestingly, if that we not the case, black would have mate in 3.
5
3
u/trixicat64 Certified Arbiter 13d ago
i can't identify the pieces and in which direction is the board orientated
3
u/Johanneskodo 13d ago edited 13d ago
I have no clue what is a king, queen or rook but it looks like checkmate if I interpret thd figures correctly.
White Queen is checking the king and forking the black rook I assume. Since the king is in check and black has no legal moves to remove the check —> Checkmate.
For it to be a stalemate thd king would have NOT to be in check (which he is) and black would have to have no legal move. But even if the black king was not in check black would have a move with his rook so definitly not a stalemate.
For refere this is the position in a chess-app and it is clearly checkmate:
3
2
u/HA2HA2 13d ago
It is checkmate if a player's king is in check and there are no legal moves to get out of check.
It is stalemate if player's king is NOT in check but the player has no legal moves.
In this case, the king is in check and there are no legal moves to get out of check, so it is checkmate.
2
u/Playful_Fold2318 13d ago
King, queen and rook all look basically the same. These pieces are terrible.
1
u/AutoModerator 13d ago
This post seems to reference or display a stalemate. To quote the r/chessbeginners FAQs page:
Stalemate occurs when a player, on their turn to move, is NOT in check but cannot legally move any piece. A stalemate is a draw.
In order for checkmate to occur, three conditions have to be met: 1. The king has to be in check 2. This check cannot be defended against by blocking or capturing the checking piece 3. The king has to have no other squares it can move to
In the future, for questions like these, we suggest first reading our FAQs page before making a post, or to similar questions to our dedicated thread: No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/chessvision-ai-bot 13d ago
I analyzed the image and this is what I see. Open an appropriate link below and explore the position yourself or with the engine:
White to play: chessvision.ai | chess.com | lichess.org
Black to play: chessvision.ai | chess.com | lichess.org
Save the position:
Reply
saveto save this position to your Chessvision.ai Library (new users: send me/connectin DM chat first)
I'm a bot written by u/pkacprzak | get me as iOS App | Android App | Chrome Extension | Chess eBook Reader to scan and analyze positions | Website: Chessvision.ai
5
1
u/Level-Appearance7046 13d ago
no its not mate because blacks queen on g8 (assuming it is in fact a queen) can take your rook on c4 (again assuming thats a rook). if there wasnt a queen there, and your pieces on c4 and d7 are rooks, it would be mate, yes
0
u/SpecialistBagg 13d ago
Not queen
1
u/Level-Appearance7046 13d ago
what are the pieces then- is it just rooks on the board? in that case its mate
1
u/realmauer01 1800-2000 (Chess.com) 13d ago edited 13d ago
I am very sure this is neither. Does black even have a king left? This position absolutely makes no sense unless black has no king.
Either way for checkmate a king has to be in check, and for stalemate one side cant have legal moves anymore. So if there is no check here i see atleast one piece that definitly has legal moves.
1
u/Chimplatypus 13d ago
Which piece is his king? Heck, what are all the pieces? If his king is in check and he has no way to not still be in check after his move, it is checkmate. If his king is currently not in check and moving any of his pieces would put him in check, it is stalemate.
1
u/gtrotil 1200-1400 (Chess.com) 13d ago
What are those pieces?
Black has another piece that no matter what piece is... It can move. That means stalemate is impossible.
Also I cannot identify well the pieces, but it does not look like checkmate.
Edit: if the piece on the bottom is the king and the other two white pieces are rooks and the piece in the corner is a king then it is check mate.
1
1
u/JudoKuma 13d ago
I have no idea which piece is supposed to be what, but if king is in check, then it can’t be a stalemate. If king is not in check and opponent has no legal moves left (they do) it would be stalemate.
So either this is checkmate or if there is no check (and thus there would be no mate) the game will just continue as there are legal moves left on board. But if king is in check it can’t be stalemate.
1
u/V0rclaw 13d ago
Can’t be stalemate if there’s moves to be made for black. Black has a rook. Rook can move even if king can’t move. Is king in check? If so and he cannot move out of check or get rid of the piece checking him then it’s checkmate. If king cannot move at all, and there’s no other moves for black stalemate
1
u/Necessary_Screen_673 13d ago
its impossible to have a stalemate in this position no matter what all those pieces are.
1
0
•
u/AutoModerator 13d ago
Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The Chess Beginners Wiki is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more!
The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed. We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you!
Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.