Letter #44 -  2010

Sub:    Stalemate position
Date:   10/26/10  10:35:24 AM EDT
From:  maxpal75
To:      service@Chess-poster.com

In the following diagram from your site, if white moves Bxb5 then is stalemate according to the FIDE rules: -5.2 “The game is drawn when the player to move has no legal move and his King is not in check. The game is said to end in 'stalemate'. This immediately ends the game.”

White to move and mate in one move

In other words, the black pieces have no possibility of movement and since white pieces cannot check the King, it is a draw.

Thanks,
See ya.

Dear viewer,

We believe the position is from our Chess Problems (Mate in 1) page. The answer to this problem is linked to the very last move black pieces have just made.

The following diagram shows the previous move black made to arrive to the above position shown in your e-mail:

White to move and mate in one move

The b7-b5 move made by black enables the a5 white Pawn to capture it in passing (en passant), placing himself on b6 square and checkmating the black King.

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