OpenChess

My home-rolled PGN parser is starting to really take shape, but I've run into an interesting dilemma. I use weekly downloads from "The Week In Chess" (http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/twic.html) as test data, and I've found several examples where the result at the end of the game doesn't match the recorded result. For example, in the game below (from twic804.pgn) the result is clearly remarked as "0-1", but the position is actually a stalemate! So...did neither player notice the stalemate, or is the PGN result bogus?

[Event "33rd Open"]
[Site "Donostia ESP"]
[Date "2010.03.30"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Goubert Gaebele,Robert"]
[Black "Moreiro Sanchez,S"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "1636"]
[EventDate "2010.03.28"]
[ECO "A80"]

1. d4 f5 2. e3 Nf6 3. Nf3 e6 4. Bd3 Be7 5. Nbd2 d5 6. c4 c6 7. Qa4 O-O 8.
Qc2 Qe8 9. b3 Nbd7 10. Bb2 Qg6 11. Rg1 Bb4 12. O-O-O Qe8 13. h3 Qe7 14. g4
Ne4 15. Nxe4 dxe4 16. Be2 exf3 17. Bxf3 fxg4 18. Bxg4 Nf6 19. Be2 Ba3 20.
e4 Bxb2+ 21. Kxb2 Bd7 22. Rg3 Rac8 23. Rdg1 Rf7 24. e5 Ne8 25. Bd3 g6 26.
Rg4 Qf8 27. R1g2 Rc7 28. h4 Rg7 29. h5 gxh5 30. Bxh7+ Kh8 31. Rxg7 Nxg7 32.
Bg6 Be8 33. Be4 Nf5 34. Qd3 Rg7 35. Rh2 Bg6 36. Qd1 Qd8 37. d5 cxd5 38.
cxd5 Qb6 39. Kc3 Qc5+ 40. Kb2 Qd4+ 41. Qxd4 Nxd4 42. Bxg6 Rxg6 43. Rxh5+
Kg7 44. d6 Nc6 45. d7 Rg2 46. Rh3 Rxf2+ 47. Ka3 Rf7 48. Rd3 Rf8 49. b4 b5
50. Rg3+ Kf7 51. Rf3+ Ke7 52. Rxf8 Kxf8 53. Kb3 Ke7 54. a4 a6 55. a5 Nxe5
56. Kc3 Kxd7 57. Kd4 Nc6+ 58. Kc5 Kc7 0-1

Assuming that you were sitting in front of my (soon to be awesome) software, would you want notification of this type of situation?

Cheers!
Humble Programmer
,,,^..^,,,

One can be stalemated and the game can still be won or lost if someone's flag falls.

How can one be stalemated and still run out of time? I mean either you run out of time and game over, or you get stalemated and that's 1/2-1/2 end of game correct? How is this possible?

LucenaTheLucid wrote:How can one be stalemated and still run out of time? I mean either you run out of time and game over, or you get stalemated and that's 1/2-1/2 end of game correct? How is this possible?

You have to show you won or drew _before_ your flag fell. I suppose one could see that king move, sit for a couple of seconds, flag falls, opponent claims win, you realize you are stalemated. But so far as I know, when your flag falls you lose. Even if you mate your opponent, you have to press the clock and leave the flag hanging and not fallen.

That's about all I could think of unless white was a beginner and somehow thought he was losing...

This would be contrary to FIDE rules, since stalemate ends the game instantly. The other explanation would be that the flag fell before black made his last move, as he was making the move he noticed this and called the flag, yet the move was still recorded, as in some of the events that use the DGT boards to capture the moves.