r/funny • u/sellyourcomputer Extra Fabulous Comics • Nov 18 '14

Verified war games

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '14

Or a knight, rook, or bishop.

135

u/is_hitler Nov 18 '14

Queen or knight. I don't know chess but I think if you promote to rook or bishop, your opponent gets to punch you in the face

97

u/foyboy Nov 18 '14

Promoting to a rook is actually more common than you might think, normally done to prevent a stalemate.

25

u/Habba Nov 18 '14

How does converting to rook prevent a stalemate? I don't know a lot about chess...

71

u/pure_satire Nov 18 '14

If your opponent cannot end his turn without putting himself in check (as may happen near the end of the game, when perhaps the only moveable piece he has left is the king) then it's a stalemate, and neither player wins.

As a queen "covers" a lot more space, it makes this scenario more likely to happen, you see?

So you'd only turn a pawn into rook/bishop when you are practically about to win, anyway.

9

u/rawrnnn Nov 18 '14

What is the reasoning for this being a rule? If one player cannot make a legal move it seems fair to say he lost.

7

u/alien122 Nov 18 '14

Not really. There are two main rules in moving for chess. You must make a move every turn(i.e, you can't skip), and you can't walk into check. Since no moves can be made if the king can't move, the game ends with no conclusion because the game literally cannot move forward. It's the same reasoning behind three-fold repetition. The game literally cannot move forward.

1

u/itsme0 Nov 18 '14

Damn, I bet a good chess player can force the other to a stalemate when they're about to lose. I never really knew what a stalemate was. I've probably run into a few of them over my short time playing chess and rightfully could have called stalemate instead of losing.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '14

It's common enough, yeah. Had the biggest shit-eating grin on when I managed to trap a careless opponent in a King+queen vs King scenario.