Does anyone know what happens when a game can go on forever?

I have one of these games going on and on and on, with no possible end to the game as long as neither side makes a blunder?
Is the software set up to declare a draw after 100 moves? or something like that?
thanks (if U share ur knowledge that is)

@brrr said
I have one of these games going on and on and on, with no possible end to the game as long as neither side makes a blunder?
Is the software set up to declare a draw after 100 moves? or something like that?
thanks (if U share ur knowledge that is)

you can claim a draw if the same move is repeated 3 times

@Brrr

Have you checked the FAQ yet?
Your answer might be here --->FAQ

@brrr said
I have one of these games going on and on and on, with no possible end to the game as long as neither side makes a blunder?
Is the software set up to declare a draw after 100 moves? or something like that?
thanks (if U share ur knowledge that is)

The game just continues until someone times out, or dies.

Like a gladiator...

@padger said
you can claim a draw if the same move is repeated 3 times

Game in progress.

@brrr said
I have one of these games going on and on and on, with no possible end to the game as long as neither side makes a blunder?
Is the software set up to declare a draw after 100 moves? or something like that?
thanks (if U share ur knowledge that is)

You are not telling me that you have been at about 2200 rating and don't know the rules of the game? (Hint: look up the game with most moves ever in your database)

@padger said
you can claim a draw if the same move is repeated 3 times

Position, not move. The distinction has cost people the draw. And nowadays, when a position is repeated 5 times, the arbiter can declare a draw even if the players don't, but I don't think this site does so.

@shallow-blue said
Position, not move. The distinction has cost people the draw. And nowadays, when a position is repeated 5 times, the arbiter can declare a draw even if the players don't, but I don't think this site does so.

Yes it is position. I didn't know about the 5 times rule but it would suggest that even in otb games the draw has to be claimed which, I suppose, is why it's like that on here.
It's the one aspect of chess I struggle with as I'm sure do others.
It would help if the draw was automatic after 3 repeated positions but as this isn't the case for FIDE and UCF I don't suppose it's worth suggesting it for RHP

50 moves without a capture or a pawn advance can be claimed as a draw. Of course, a 21 day time out with a 21 day time bank and 36 days of vacation for each player can last longer than the age of the universe. The question is practical, not rhetorical. Brings to mind some of John Cage's compositions, such as ORGAN2/ASLSP, which lasts 639 years, when played properly.

@venda said
Yes it is position. I didn't know about the 5 times rule but it would suggest that even in otb games the draw has to be claimed

Your suggestion is wrong.

After 3 repetitions, the draw has to be claimed by one of the players, at the point described in the FIDE rules.

After 5 repetitions, however, the draw can be imposed by the arbiter.

(I didn't know this either until a year or so ago, despite running my club's local competition, and thank Cthulhu I've never come close to being in a position to choose to - since I wouldn't know where to start reading the horrendous handwriting of most of my players - but it is the official FIDE rule, since, IIRC, 2014. In a similar vein, players may claim a draw after 50 moves of faffing about, the arbiter may impose it after 75 of ditto. At least that's spottable, but even that one I've never come close to needing, and glad of it.)

@coquette said
50 moves without a capture or a pawn advance can be claimed as a draw. Of course, a 21 day time out with a 21 day time bank and 36 days of vacation for each player can last longer than the age of the universe.

In the spirit of pedantry which this thread has engendred (pedant? MOI? Never!), I don't think so.

The longest chess game ever actually played was 269 moves long, but that was between the mere amateurs Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović, both (in all probability: I can't find any other information on either of them) much better players than either of us, but still not a patch on the properly anal-retentive theoreticians.

The longest chess game possible has been computed at just under 6000 moves. As I believe this was done before the 75-move rule was instated, let's say that neither player wants to stop but the arbiter does (if not, the game can go on until the electrons decay) and multiply this by 1½ to give 7500 moves.
The time bank is irrelevant. It's precisely as long as the time-out, so all it does, mathematically rather than psychologically, is add a single move. 21 is close enough to 20 to make no difference, given than 7500 is an upper bound already. Therefore, the total number of days a chess game on RHP can go on is 7500 × 20 = 150,000 days, *give or take*. That is just over 410 years, not even close to the end of Brexit, let alone the universe...

The question is practical, not rhetorical. Brings to mind some of John Cage's compositions, such as ORGAN2/ASLSP, which lasts 639 years, when played properly.

...and even only two-thirds as long as that boredom.

Frankly, I'd rather watch the chess game. Give me a proper operetta to sing in any day!

@shallow-blue said
In the spirit of pedantry which this thread has engendred (pedant? MOI? Never!), I don't think so.

The longest chess game ever actually played was 269 moves long, but that was between the mere amateurs Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović, both (in all probability: I can't find any other information on either of them) much better players than either of us, but still ...[text shortened]... boredom.

Frankly, I'd rather watch the chess game. Give me a proper operetta to sing in any day!

if not, the game can go on until the electrons decay

I don't think electrons can decay since there isn't a charged state for them to decay into. Are you thinking of proton decay here?

@deepthought said

if not, the game can go on until the electrons decay

I don't think electrons can decay since there isn't a charged state for them to decay into. Are you thinking of proton decay here?

No... that was the point.

Intuitively, a "legal" game, without any of the draw options available, would extend far beyond a mere 6000 moves. I'd guess, offhand, that 6 million moves wouldn't be enough.

It's an exponential, or geometric, expansion. If we imagine, for just a moment, the doubling of a width of a sheet of paper 43 times, it excedes the distance to the moon. Double it 103 times? Wider than the entire universe. Do the math.

Take a breath. You just breathed in molecules that every great and notoruous and criminal and insignificant human that ever lived had breathed in - with each breath, if you allow for a few hours of diffusion after being born.

6,000 moves? Who did that calculation? Maybe a checkers player.

@coquette said
Intuitively, a "legal" game, without any of the draw options available, would extend far beyond a mere 6000 moves. I'd guess, offhand, that 6 million moves wouldn't be enough.

It's an exponential, or geometric, expansion. If we imagine, for just a moment, the doubling of a width of a sheet of paper 43 times, it excedes the distance to the moon. Double it 103 times? Wider ...[text shortened]... rs of diffusion after being born.

6,000 moves? Who did that calculation? Maybe a checkers player.

In fact if you want to avoid threefold repetition you have to move pawns at some point and they can't go back....so it has to end. Eventhough there are really really many positions possible in chess in principle in each game you remove options for those.

In fact tehre is a site which sollceted interesting facts:
http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/did_you_know.htm