Dead Position

Dead position is a formal term defined by the FIDE Laws of Chess rather than an inherited expression, using dead in the figurative sense of having no further possibility of development. Article 5.2.2 states that the game is drawn when a position has arisen in which neither player can checkmate the opponent's king with any series of legal moves, that the game is said to end in a dead position, and that this immediately ends the game. The Laws are explicit that the ending is automatic and requires no claim by either player, provided the move producing the position was legal. The FIDE glossary repeats the definition in short form as a position where neither player can mate the opponent's king with any series of legal moves. The current Laws in which this wording appears were approved by the FIDE General Assembly on 7 August 2022 at the 93rd FIDE Congress in Chennai and came into force on 1 January 2023. No source located in this session dates the first appearance of the phrase in the Laws.

First documented: n.a. — n.a. for first appearance of the phrase; the current wording is Article 5.2.2 of the FIDE Laws of Chess in force from 1 January 2023