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Jeremy Lennert wrote on Fri, Oct 11, 2013 06:32 PM UTC:

Currently, a stalemate in Chess is widely recognized as a draw.

Why?

My understanding is that, originally, Chess had no prohibition against moving into check, so "stalemate" didn't exist. The rule against moving into check was added to prevent interesting games from ending early due to a dumb mistake. (I personally think this is a dubious justification--there are many blunders that could lead to the swift and unexpected end of an interesting game, and my gut feeling is that an opponent should be allowed to retract any of them in a casual game and none of them in a tournament or other serious game. I don't see why this specific blunder should be enshrined in rule.)

That changed the win condition from "capturing the king" to "checkmate", and as a side effect created the possibility of "stalemate". But the situations that we now call "stalemate" would have been wins for the side delivering the stalemate before the above rule modification, and the above rule modification was not (so far as I know) specifically targeted at such situations, so it's not clear why it ought to change how the game is resolved in those situations.

Wikipedia has a brief history of the stalemate rule, and points out various people who have argued for or against changing the current rule. But I'm looking for a game design reason, rather than a historical or political reason--is the game BETTER because stalemate is a draw rather than a win? Why or why not?


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