John Foley explores a couple of sweet stalemates by Kingston players
Stalemates should be listed on the 100 things for a chessplayer to do before they die. They are very rare – around 0.1% of all games – so they need to be savoured. They come in two flavours – sweet and bitter. They are sweet when conjured up by the player who is in a lost position and seeking a last resort. They are bitter when they arise as an unexpected shock to the player who has a dominant position and cruising towards victory.
We take a look at two types of stalemate – when the king is in the corner a knight’s distance away from the opposing queen; and when the queen is sacrificed in order to deflect the opponent’s queen. We show a couple of games with these themes from Kingston players together with a high-level game illustrating the same theme. Even strong players are not immune to stalemate trickery.
Friedrich Baumbach (Germany) v Alan Scrimgour (Scotland)
World Senior Team Championships, Crete, 2017
This result was commendable for Alan as his opponent was a Fide master who had been world correspondence chess champion 1983–89 and East German champion in 1970.
The stalemate theme of the queen being a knight’s move away from the king was also seen in the game played between two Hungarian grandmasters.
Lajos Portisch v Levente Lengyel
4th Costa del Sol, Malaga, February 1964
One of our younger stars is Zain Patel (pictured above), who delayed resigning against a strong international master in the recent Reykjavik Open. Zain was biding his time giving a few desultory checks.
Zain Patel (England) 2062 v Irakli Akhvlediani (Georgia) 2429
Round 5, Reykjavik Open, 28 March 2026
The stalemate theme of forking the king and queen was executed by Neil McDonald in a simultaneous display game against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1986. Neil became an international master in the same year and a grandmaster 10 years later.
Garry Kasparov v Neil McDonald Uppingham, 27 May 1986
If there is any moral to this story, it is don’t resign if you suspect you might be able to snatch stalemate.
Alicia Mason v “Fishfo” Lichess game 4 April 2025
Following the publication of the above positions, club member Alicia Mason (pictured below) sent in the following sweet stalemate. This is another route to stalemate – instead of sacrificing the queen with a royal fork as in the previous example, this is more direct. Once your king is immobilised, your queen is on a mission to self-destruct. One nice aspect of this position is that the variations disclose other stalemate finishes.
