Claiming a Draw

Claim in this sense preserves the original force of Latin clamare, to call out, since a claim under the Laws is literally an announcement made to the arbiter. The distinction the term encodes is central to the modern Laws: some draws are automatic and some must be claimed. Under FIDE Article 9.2 a player having the move may claim a draw when the same position is about to appear or has just appeared for at least the third time, and under Article 9.3 when the last 50 moves by each player have been completed without a pawn move or a capture, or when the player's intended written move will produce that state. Article 9.4 provides that touching a piece as in Article 4.3 forfeits the right to claim on that move. Article 9.5 requires that the player or the arbiter stop the chessclock, states that the claim cannot be withdrawn, makes the game immediately drawn if the claim is correct, and awards two minutes to the opponent if it is incorrect. By contrast, the fivefold repetition and 75-move provisions of Article 9.6 and the dead position of Article 5.2.2 need no claim at all.

First documented: n.a. — n.a. for the phrase; current procedure is Articles 9.2 to 9.5 of the FIDE Laws of Chess in force from 1 January 2023