Is there a rule in chess that says that the same arrangement of pieces on the board can’t occur twice in the same game?
In other words, could someone potentially create an endgame situation in which the players endlessly kept making the same cyclical sequence of moves?
It’s not that you can’t have the same board arrangement twice, but yes, if you end up in an endgame situtation where you repeatedly do the same move back and forth, you end up with a Stalemate.
If you repeat the same position three times, you can claim a draw. But it’s not automatic. You must claim it. If it’s over-the-board, you have to call the director and show him your scoresheet. If it’s on the computer, you just click the “Draw.” I’ve caught a few people on this, who thought in order to claim the draw the same moves must be repeated three times. This is not necessary. The same moves need not be repeated. There can be different moves. All that is necessary is that the same position is repeated three times and you can claim the draw.
I should add that there once was a rule that in the endgame, if no pawn is moved for 50 moves, the position is a draw. However, computers have demonstrated that some endgame positions need more than 50 moves to win, but are winnable. Hence, this rule no longer obtains.
What barbitu8 says. Same position three times means a draw is claim-able.
To correct frazeb’s post, this would be a “draw by repeated position”. Stalemate occurs when you have no legal moves but your king is not in check.
The 50-move rule was that 50 moves would end the game if it is reversible. Moving a pawn, capturing a piece, castling, etc. aren’t reversible and the count starts over.
For cases in which it is theoretically possible to win in 100, 200, 250 moves, those are exceptions to the 50-move rule, but I haven’t ever heard of this coming up in actual tournament play (though it probably has).
Just to clarify, the two rules in question are (or used to be):
The game is a draw:
If the same position is repeated three times and the same player is to move,
After fifty moves without a pawn moved or a capture made.
Thanks!
FIDE rule 10.5:
The position does not have to be consecutive. In the 9th match game, 1962, between Evans and Lombardy, before Evans played 81. Kg1-f2, he summoned Hans Kmoch, the director, and claimed a draw by repetition. Kmoch examined the scoresheet and determined that the same position occurred previously at Move 68 and Move 77, and declared the game a draw.