Although checkmate is the goal of a chess game, it is not the only way to end every game. There are at least three other ways to win or lose a game:

• You can win when your opponent runs out of time.

• You can win when your opponent resigns, giving you the game.

• You can win when your opponent fails to show up for a scheduled game, thus forfeiting.

Winning Without Checkmate

In order to run your opponent out of time you have to be using chess clocks. You will learn about chess clocks in the next chapter.

The next way to win without checkmate is the most common of all. Most experienced players don't wait for checkmate. They can see it coming, often a long way off. So, rather than fight on in a hopeless situation, they will resign the game, which can be done by tipping over their king or offering to shake their opponent's hand or simply saying “I resign.”

A great player once jumped up on the top of the table, threw his king across the room, and shouted “Why must I lose to this idiot?” This is not the recommended way of resigning, however. Nor is the unsportsmanlike trick of picking up and leaving the game while your clock is ticking, thus forcing your opponent to wait until your time runs out in order to record his win.

Finally, there is the dreaded forfeit. This is an unavoidable consequence of large tournaments; nevertheless, nobody likes them. The winner never got to play a game. The people he passed by with this unearned victory rather resent being beaten out in the standings by someone who didn't play all their games. And the tournament director has to explain it all and try to make this seeming nonsense make sense. But what else can you do when a player shows up for a game and her opponent doesn't show up? So the forfeit has a place in chess and is here to stay.

Nobody Wins or Loses

There is another way to end a chess game altogether. It is possible for a chess game to end in a draw or a tie, with neither player winning or losing.

In a formal tournament or match, each game is recorded as 1 point for the winner and 0 points for the loser. If the game is a draw, the game is recorded as ½ a point for each player. Thus two draws are equivalent to a win and a loss in a tournament or a match.

There are various ways to “split the point” (draw or tie) in a chess game. They range from the opponents simply agreeing to end hostilities to various ways provided for in the rules of chess that cover situations where one player may have an advantage, but cannot or will not push that advantage through to a checkmate. These situations are described below in detail.