Automatic draw

An automatic draw ends the game as soon as a condition recognized directly by the rules occurs. Neither player needs to make a claim, a formal request for an arbiter's ruling, to create the result, although an arbiter or playing system may still need to establish what happened.

Main cases

• Stalemate: the player to move has no legal move and is not in check.
• Dead position: neither player can checkmate by any possible series of legal moves.
• Fivefold repetition: a position with the same pieces, turn, and legal possibilities has appeared at least five times.
• Seventy-five-move rule: each player has made at least seventy-five consecutive moves without a pawn move or capture. If the last move gives checkmate, leaving the king attacked with no legal reply, checkmate takes precedence.

A dead position is broader than a fixed list of material. The key question is not simply how many pieces remain, but whether checkmate is impossible for both sides even through any legal cooperation.

Automatic draws differ from claimable draws. Threefold repetition and the fifty-move rule normally require a correct claim by the player having the move. A draw by agreement is also different because it depends on both players accepting the result.