Timeout

Timeout is the common term, especially online, for a chess clock, which measures each player’s remaining time, reaching its limit before the required moves are completed. In over-the-board play, meaning a game played in person on a physical board, the equivalent clock event is called flag-fall.

The usual result is a loss for the player whose time expired. There is an important exception: if the opponent cannot give checkmate, meaning an attack on the king with no legal reply, through any possible sequence of legal moves, the game is a draw, a result with no winner. A simple count of the remaining pieces is not enough; what matters is whether any legal mating sequence exists.

On a platform, the result is normally assigned automatically. In regulated online competition, a disconnection usually does not stop the clock. If the player cannot reconnect before time expires, the time result described above applies unless the event regulations specify another consequence.

Timeout is not the same as a forfeit. Timeout is caused by the clock; a forfeit is imposed for an infringement, absence, or another competition condition.