why is this a draw?

I was losing on time yet winning in position, but still decided to try flag opponent to get the win. I knew that it would have been much easier for him to flag me if I spent any time on trying to think my way out of this end game--so I went for the bad win, over the good loss, haha. Hey, it's a rapid game. I don't have issues with flagging in short time games (that's part of it).

I was starting to catch up on time, (got from his 2 1/2 min to my 1 min down to almost equal), but then game got called on a draw. Why? There was less than 300 moves played (lichess auto draw, right?), and we did not repeat position 3 times. So, how did this draw occur? (113 moves).



Thanks!

Why didn't you just checkmate him? One minute is more than enough for it. It was a draw due to 50 move rule

I didn't checkmate him @bladdon, because I suck. Too much time pressure for me (again, because I am not very good), and I needed a win desperately at that point, haha.

50 moves? Oh without material grabbed?

lichess.org/practice
Then you might find something interesting here

R+K vs K is an important checkmating pattern. You should try to make an effort to learn it, because it will totally come up in games (as you saw here).

In short, use the Rook to box the King down to a single rank or file, or as few as possible. Then use your King to force him to move to fewer and fewer ranks/files until he's stuck on a single rank/file.

Make sure not to let him take your rook by moving him to the edge of the board, and moving him again whenever the King gets within 1 square, to the opposite side. That earns you 5 free moves per side, and your King can act with impunity as long as you don't cross the line your Rook created (giving the opponent a potential way out of the box).

The pattern to remember is that if the Kings are opposite each other, and you put him into check with the Rook, he can only move away from your King, since he cannot move towards (moving into check by the King) and cannot move side-to-side (not removed from check by the Rook). If there's no square away, obviously it's checkmate.

The idea ^^ is quite simple, you limit the King's movements more and more. For example in move 54. you could have played Rb3 to border the King to the a-file. Followed by 54... Ka4 55. Rb5 Kxa3 and then you just bring white King closer step by step, mate in six moves. Once you force the black King to the opposition (both kings on same rank or file with only one square between them - important concept in chess theory) you can mate him with Rook check on a-file.

i knew one rule, if the opponent has only the king you need to checkmate in some moves but i down know how much. maybe 50

The last capture was on move 63, and the capture took the last pawn off of the board. Therefore, fifty moves passed without a pawn move or a capture, so the game was a draw.

if there is no capture for 40 moves the game is called off as a draw.

@hussainindia The 50-move-rule (already mentioned by @bladdon) means that if there are no captures or pawn moves for 50 (not 40) the game will be ended in a draw.