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I only watched one game, but it seems that: 1) Yes, most games will end in stalemate. 2) Most wins would occur when one side has enough passed paws such that t

I only watched one game, but it seems that: 1) Yes, most games will end in stalemate. 2) Most wins would occur when one side has enough passed paws such that they chance upon promoting to a few queens. 3) The random-promotion significantly lowers the chances for checkmate. Promotion to a queen is so common that many players who play online chess set paws to automatically promote to queens, so they don't waste the 2 or so seconds it takes to click the "Queen" button.

logfromblammo 12y ago
There are only a few circumstances where you would not promote to queen. The first is if promoting to queen would cause stalemate. In that case, you would probably promote to bishop instead, because rook would cause the same problem as queen, and knight is harder to force mate with. In the rare case where a bishop would cause stalemate, you promote to rook instead. The second is if promoting to knight would force checkmate faster or more surely than queen, which is so rare you practically need to play with the intent of making it happen. Either one is trivial to determine in a chess-playing program. Check 1: would a knight promotion cause immediate checkmate? If yes, then promote to knight. Check 2: would a queen promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to queen. Check 3: would a rook promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to rook. Check 4: would a bishop promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to bishop. Check 5: would a knight promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to knight. Otherwise, promote to queen and take the stalemate. Or you could simply make queen promotion the automatic default unless you advanced the pawn using a context menu to promote to a different piece.
- randomnumber53 12y ago
  This comment is as far from true as the decision is far from trivial. That is to say, very far. By far the second most common piece to promote to is a knight, simply because a knight moves in a way a queen cannot. In my 10 years of playing chess, I have probably seen about 5-10 tournament games where promoting to a knight is the correct choice. Here is a FEN of an example where the only saving move for Black is to play 1...e1=N+: "8/8/8/8/8/3K4/R3p3/3k4 b - - 0 1" You are right in that the only reason to ever promote to a bishop or rook is to avoid stalemate, yet there is only one practical example of such, here: "8/2P5/8/8/3r4/8/2K5/k7 w - - 0 1". White must promote to a rook, since if they promote to a queen Black will play 1...Rc4+, forcing 2...Qxc4, which is stalemate. I cannot even find a practical example of when promoting to a bishop would the best choice.

logfromblammo 12y ago

There are only a few circumstances where you would not promote to queen. The first is if promoting to queen would cause stalemate. In that case, you would probably promote to bishop instead, because rook would cause the same problem as queen, and knight is harder to force mate with. In the rare case where a bishop would cause stalemate, you promote to rook instead. The second is if promoting to knight would force checkmate faster or more surely than queen, which is so rare you practically need to play with the intent of making it happen. Either one is trivial to determine in a chess-playing program. Check 1: would a knight promotion cause immediate checkmate? If yes, then promote to knight. Check 2: would a queen promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to queen. Check 3: would a rook promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to rook. Check 4: would a bishop promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to bishop. Check 5: would a knight promotion cause immediate stalemate? If no, then promote to knight. Otherwise, promote to queen and take the stalemate. Or you could simply make queen promotion the automatic default unless you advanced the pawn using a context menu to promote to a different piece.

randomnumber53 12y ago
This comment is as far from true as the decision is far from trivial. That is to say, very far. By far the second most common piece to promote to is a knight, simply because a knight moves in a way a queen cannot. In my 10 years of playing chess, I have probably seen about 5-10 tournament games where promoting to a knight is the correct choice. Here is a FEN of an example where the only saving move for Black is to play 1...e1=N+: "8/8/8/8/8/3K4/R3p3/3k4 b - - 0 1" You are right in that the only reason to ever promote to a bishop or rook is to avoid stalemate, yet there is only one practical example of such, here: "8/2P5/8/8/3r4/8/2K5/k7 w - - 0 1". White must promote to a rook, since if they promote to a queen Black will play 1...Rc4+, forcing 2...Qxc4, which is stalemate. I cannot even find a practical example of when promoting to a bishop would the best choice.