A Sense of Doubt blog post #3416 - How is this not Checkmate? - Issues with CHESS dot com

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3416 - How is this not Checkmate? - Issues with CHESS dot com

I have been playing a lot of chess lately with the Chess dot com app as I prepare to play an actual human soon and possibly somewhat regularly.

The app has this annoying habit of declaring a game a draw or a stalemate when I am just about to checkmate the AI.

I am playing white in all these games.

I had pinned the black king in the corner, and I was planning to check and checkmate with my next play by moving my queen to D4. 

But the AI called this a draw, probably because black is out of moves and the black king is not in check. But it's not a DRAW. I am about to checkmate. And I have definitely won the pieces battle.

Or how is this a draw???

Love this example, also. The AI declared this game a draw before I could make any more moves. But here black is NOT out of moves. Black pawns can move. But this is checkmate!!

And again, I won the pieces battle.

I admit that so far I am taking it easy. I am playing on the easy and friendly settings that allow me to rewind the game, which as I shook off the rust as I started playing again, I had to do fairly often.

Lately, I am beating this AI most of the time and rarely have to take back a move, though I am still making mistakes occasionally mostly because I am distracted by something else going on around me.

In this game above, the computer called it a "draw" when, as you can see, I am one move from checkmate. But again this is the app's inability to pass. Black has no moves. And with my next move -- Queen to F6, the black king would be in checkmate.

These were declared as checkmates:

I like this one above because I have the black king surrounded.

This next one (below) is also great fun because I have THREE QUEENS in play!!

Definitely, won the  pieces battle in this one.

This last game is the most recent. I like how elegant it is. I have an extra queen and the rook all in rows 6-8. CHECKMATE.

Beware the app that is unable to pass and calls games one move from checkmate a "draw."

DISCLAIMER: I quite playing computer games in around 2006 or 2007. By which I mean that I quit long play games at the PC or game console. I was rather addicted, and computer games had consumed huge amounts of my time, attention, and energy. They "ate" my life. I still play these games that do not eat my life, though not often. I play WORDS WITH FRIENDS with two people every day but other than that I don't really play computer games. When idle, I do not call up Candy Crush on my phone. I don't even HAVE Candy Crush on my phone. I do not play WORDLE, mainly because of my aversion to fads and what's popular. I play Othello and Mastermind occasionally, but until recently, I had played a game of chess in ages. I may add SUDOKU to my tablet, which is where I play most games (except WORDS WITH FRIENDS). But I have this all under control. No more addiction. No more eating my life. These quick games are not gateway drugs to something like Skyrim or World of Warcraft. I'm good.

Thanks for tuning in.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2406.25 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3280 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.