Stalemate: the art of the draw
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Rescuing oneself from a seemingly hopeless position forms part of the armoury of every strong chess player. The current political situation in Ukraine reminds me ineluctably of the chess player’s ability to salvage a draw from an inferior position. And of the various ways to achieve a draw, stalemate is by far the most emphatic. It is no accident that both Trump and Putin have associated themselves with chess in the past and that both have earned a reputation for strategic thinking, when, for example, compared with the current crop of Western leaders.
In this context, do note the Russian coverage of President Trump and Vice-President Vance’s verbal attack on President Zelensky. Steve Rosenberg, BBC’s Moscow correspondent wrote – “I doubt that Donald Trump watches Russian state TV ‘s weekly news review. But he would surely approve of anchor Dmitry Kiselev’s take on their Oval Office drama: “Trump behaved stoically…stood up for Vance like a lion…and Trump looked like a chess Grandmaster…”.
Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate, therefore, results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position to draw the game rather than lose. In more complex positions, stalemate is much rarer, usually taking the form of what chess players call a “swindle” — a tactic that succeeds only if the superior side is inattentive. Stalemate is also a common theme in endgame studies and other chess problems.
The first recorded use of “stalemate” is as late as 1765. It is a compounding of Middle English stale and mate (meaning checkmate). Stale is probably derived from Anglo-French estale meaning “standstill”, a cognate of “stand” and “stall”, both ultimately derived from the proto-Indo-European root *sta-. The first recorded use of “stalemate” in a figurative sense is in 1885.
Stalemate has become a widely used metaphor for other situations where there is a conflict or contest between two parties, such as war or political negotiations, and neither side is able to achieve victory, resulting in what is also called an impasse, a deadlock, or a Mexican standoff. Chess writers note that this usage is a misnomer because, unlike in chess, the situation is often a temporary one that is ultimately resolved, even if it seems currently intractable. The term “stalemate” is also sometimes used incorrectly as a generic term for a draw in chess. While draws are common, they are rarely the direct result of stalemate.
Two chess terms are commonly misunderstood by those not fully familiar with the game. One, as we have seen, is “stalemate”, which means that one side cannot make any moves and that the game is irrevocably drawn. There is no such thing as a temporary stalemate. Thus the impasse on the western front of the First World War is often described as “stalemate”, but this is quite wrong, since the deadlock was eventually broken by a victorious Allied advance.
Similarly, the war between Russia and Ukraine has been inaccurately described as a stalemate, which is quite wrong, since the war remains fluid and the outcome uncertain. This war more closely resembles a situation where a stronger player, who finds himself in a precarious position, simply offers a draw. In this case the stronger player is neither Russia nor Ukraine but President Trump, the most powerful man in the world, backed by Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world. In effect, President Trump has offered a draw to Vladimir Putin, over the head of President Zelensky. One might describe this as: making an offer which cannot be refused — although Putin has yet to accept it.
The stalemate rule has had a convoluted history. Although stalemate is universally recognized as a draw today, that was not the case for much of the game’s history. In the forerunners to modern chess, such as chaturanga, delivering stalemate resulted in a loss. This was changed in shatranj, however, where stalemating was a win. This practice persisted in chess as played in early 15th-century Spain. Lucena (c. 1497), however, treated stalemate as an inferior form of victory; it won only half the stake in games played for money, and this continued to be the case in Spain as late as 1600. From about 1600 to 1800, the rule in England was that stalemate was a loss for the player administering it, a rule that the eminent chess historian H. J. R. Murray believes may have been adopted from Russian chess. That rule disappeared in England before 1820, being replaced by the French and Italian rule that a stalemate was a drawn game.
The other candidate for mis-use is “checkmate”. Checkmate terminates the game absolutely, with no possible comeback.
In previous Saturday chess columns I have referred to Dante’s use of the game in his cosmological system to describe the number of angels in the heavens. The formula is that of a piece of corn placed on a corner of the chessboard, and doubled on each square thereafter. This operation results in two to the power of 64 (minus one) pieces of corn, an unimaginably vast number.
Dante’s Inferno, Canto 34, depicts the final stage of the poet’s journey through Hell, accompanied by his guide and Latin counterpart, Virgil.
Travelling towards the centre of the Ninth Circle of Hell, Dante sees a huge shape in the distance, while beneath his feet, he observes the sinners of this Circle totally immersed in ice. They are the most depraved of all sinners: Traitors to their Benefactors. Their particular region of Hell, the Fourth Ring of the Ninth Circle, is named after the perpetrator of the ultimate betrayal, Judas Iscariot, who was a traitor to none other than Jesus Christ.
The giant figure in the distance is soon revealed as Lucifer, otherwise known as Satan or Dis. This hideous apparition has three equally horrible faces, and below each tripartite head, mocking The Holy Trinity, rises a set of wings, flapping back and forth. This action drives the icy winds which keep Cocytus, the frozen lake of the ultimate sinners, the betrayers, in its permanent condition of stasis.
Each of Lucifer’s mouths holds a sinner. According to Dante they are the three most heinous sinners of human history, all Traitors to a Benefactor. In the central maw hangs Judas Iscariot, while in the left and right jaws of Satan they see Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar. Brutus and Cassius appear with their heads protruding, while Judas is pitched in headfirst; only his legs protrude, with all three mouths constantly masticating their victims, tearing the traitors in pieces, while never actually killing them.
I like to imagine that there is a region of Dante’s Ninth Circles, specially reserved for traitors, who not only betray their benefactors, but for politicians and commentators, who also get their chess metaphors hopelessly wrong.
I conclude this week with two classic examples of stalemate offering salvation to a player in otherwise desperate circumstances:
Ossip Bernstein vs. Vasily Smyslov
Groningen, 1946, rd. 7
Sometimes, a surprise stalemate saves a game. In the game Ossip Bernstein–Vasily Smyslov
Black can win by sacrificing the f-pawn and using the king to support the b-pawn. However, Smyslov thought it was good to advance the b-pawn because he could win the white rook with a skewer if it captured the pawn. Play went:
59… b2?? 60. Rxb2!
Now 60… Rh2+ 61. Kf3! Rxb2 would be stalemate.
Smyslov instead played 60… Kg4, but the game was drawn after 61.Kf1
Larry Evans vs. Samuel Reshevsky
US Championship, 1963/4, New York, rd. 9
One of the best-known examples of what is known as the desperado sacrifice is the game Larry Evans–Samuel Reshevsky, dubbed “The Swindle of the Century” at the time. Evans sacrificed his queen on move 49 and offered his rook on move 50. White’s rook has been called the eternal rook. Capturing it results in stalemate, but otherwise it stays on the seventh rank and checks Black’s king ad infinitum (i.e. perpetual check). The game would inevitably end in a draw, whether by agreement, by threefold repetition, or by an eventual claim under the fifty-move rule.
- h4!Re2+ 48. Kh1 Qxg3??
After 48… Qg6! 49. Rf8 Qe6! 50. Rh8+ Kg6, Black remains a piece ahead after 51. Qxe6+ Nxe6, or forces mate after 51. gxf4 Re1+ and 52… Qa2+ Now, however, comes the Deus ex Machina which rescues White from his perilous situation.
- Qg8+!Kxg8 50. Rxg7+! Game drawn ½-½
Ray’s 206th book, “ Chess in the Year of the King ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “ Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwells. His 208th, the world record for chess books, written jointly with chess playing artist Barry Martin, Chess through the Looking Glass , is also now available from Amazon.
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