From: "'Marc Theeuwen'" <Marc_Theeuwen <at> AMSINC <dot> COM>
Date: 12 apr 2000
Subject: Checkmate

>> In Europe, the first detected and claimed result counts. So if you find
yourself
>> checkmated, (which in itself is legal) and your opponent has run out of time,
>> you still can
>> claim the game.

>Interesting, and not as I know it from chess. I can't follow. If you are
>checkmated, then your opponent has finished his last move (although he might
>not have had the time to press the clock afterwards), so the game is over.
>It should be hard to prove that the time was up *before* he finished the mating
>move. According to my chess tournament experience, mate ends the game and you
>can't claim a win according to your opponent having run out of time. In
>5-minutes games, even a mate-in-one position is still won when you run out of
>time. This one I never liked since it's not clear whether the player would see
>and give the mate, but according to me, when you finish your move and it's mate
>(really mate, not the start of a mating sequence) then the game is over and
>can't be reclaimed.

Officially the game is only finished when one of the kings is taken. It is not
an illegal situation that your king remains to be in check (there is no rule
that forces you to say "check" to your opponent). Therefore a checkmate is
theoretically not sufficient to win the game; the player giving the checkmate
also has to be able (i.e. have sufficient time on the clock) to take the king.
Ofcourse, it is bad taste to keep on playing in case the opponent has an easy
tsume, but in case of a sudden death game with the opponent flag almost falling,
you still can win the game on
time.

Regards,

Marc Theeuwen