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> Is the following position (taken from Steinhaus, "Mathematical Snapshots")
> a mate or a stalemate?
> 
> 	....kBRK
> 	....PnPP
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 
> Black (Lower Case letters) has just moved his Knight to f7 checking the
> White (Upper Case letters) King. However, White has no legal move at all:
> none of his pieces can move. The book claims that this position is neither
> a mate, nor a stale-mate, nor another form of draw. Usually mate occurs, when
> a King is put in check, and in simple terms, the King moves, but cannot be avoid
> being captured on the following move. But in this case, White has no legal 
> move at all. So the game would stop at this point, before Black could capture
> the White King.
> 
> 	What do you think about this?
> 
> 	Rich Gott and Gary Mamon
> 

STALEMATE is defined to be the situation in which the side with the move
IS NOT in check, but can make no legal move.  Hence, this position CANNOT
be stalemate because the king IS in check. (White's last move was a pawn.)

CHECKMATE is the situation in which the side with the move IS in check and
cannot, by any legal move, relieve the situation. The fact that he may have
NO legal move at all is superfluous.

WHITE HAS BEEN CHECKMATED.     0-1

Bill Vaughn
Center for Visual Science
UNIV. OF ROCHESTER
Rochester, NY 14627
{allegra,seismo,decvax}!rochester!ur-cvsvax!bill