once again lichess' asinine insufficient material rule comes about

Taking all your opponents' pawns, leaving them with just a knight, is a very important piece of strategy in blitz chess. There is no good reason for this game not to be a draw. lichess.org/FwHvVUI89u0n

PLEASE FIX THIS NONSENSE. Ask *any* titled player and they will agree. So frustrating.

no, they wont agree, this is chess, its possible to mate but difficult.

I disagree

this is the only site that does this and it's awful. I mean, taking your opponents' pawns to ensure draw is just normal online play. Also sorry for language in game chat, I was v frustrated.

ok ONE titled player agrees with lichess fine :)

I won't spleen on this again but the possibility of an absurd helpmate should not control the outcome. This is the only online site that has this rule and it comes up fairly often.

I predict they change the rule within two years as more titled players come over.

No. Literally ANY player would agree to this.
Not about online chess. We play with FIDE rules. Like it or not.
One of the checkmate possibilities for your opponent:
lichess.org/editor/8/8/8/8/8/1N6/n1K5/k7_b_-_-
You giveaway your queen, play badly, helpmate.
If one can checkmate opponent with WORST counterplay, it is won if opponent flagged out.

you explain the rule to me as if I don't understand it when I do I just think it's awful.

I don't know, I spent over a decade on other sites, where taking opponents' pawns to secure a draw is just normal. ICC doesn't do this, chess.com doesn't, it's just a bad rule imo. We aren't doing helpmate studies here.

So far I'm 1/1, I asked IM Greg Shahade and he agrees with me.

ICC is all about the money so they do whatever members want.
Chess.com is bad.
So pigeons is not titled ?
WE ARE PLAYING WITH FIDE RULES AND IF YOUR OPPONENT CAN CHECKMATE YOU WITH YOUR WORST COUNTERPLAY, YOU LOSE WHEN YOU FLAG. YOU CAN FORM ANOTHER PCA-LIKE ANTI-FIDE ORGANIZATION IF YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY WITH CHESS RULES !

I meant 1 and 1, just mistyped.

Could you put your text in bold in addition to all caps? it's hard to read, thanks.

"form your own site", that's great, real thoughtfulness there. Why have forums here at all then?

yes, chess.com is bad and ICC costs money, that's why I like this site which in literally every other respect is excellent. There are other sites too, chesscube, playchess (is that still around) and I don't think any of them have gone this route. But as I said, I won't make any more posts about it. Not sure why you're all yelly though as I'm the one who was frustrated enough to write a post about this.

With further enemy material a knight can easier mate than a lone pawn against an army. Would a pawn e2 instead of a knight make things better?

By the way, playchess uses this rule, chess24, FIDE - it‘s only the US and its servers which make their own soup.

I like the consistency like it is employed here.

If you don’t like it, what about using a small increment instead of barking at the moon?

PS: capturing all the helpless pawns used to be a full-comprehensive insurance. But flighting pieces pose a problem.