game result

Hi, so I "lost" a game by timing out - but my opponent only had a bishop and a king. Surely it should have been a draw then, since you can't force a mate with just those pieces?

It's your pawn.

Does my pawn make it possible for me to be checkmated?

You don't need to be able to force, just has to be possible.

You can checkmate with a king and bishop versus KBP endgame only in the same color than the bishop
lichess.org/analysis/standard/K7/P1kb4/8/8/8/3B4/8/8_b_-_-#2

Proving a forced checkmate isn't feasible, for example if White times out:

I guess using the word forced was silly - I've definitely been in games where someone is winning but times out and loses and that makes sense. I really meant it didnt seem possible from the position I was in.

My king/pawn were in the wrong colored corner for a checkmate. My bishop was the wrong color to trap me. Even if I promoted my pawn and then used it to trap myself in the wrong corner whatever I promoted the piece to would be able to prevent there being a checkmate. Maybe I'm being stupid here, but I think from the game position, the way my pawn was positioned, and with the bishop I had, it was still *impossible* for me to be checkmated?

(thanks so much everyone for your replies :-)!)

#1 #7 By an underpromotion it is possible that White gets mated.

If you don’t know now you know.

In the worst case (as shown above), it is a defeat. Lichess doesn't render the feasible case but the worst case, so despite it being strikingly ironic that keeping an extra pawn alive will turn your game from a drawn game to still a potential win for either side, that is how the time out ruling works.

Should had offered a draw if you wanted a draw.