Fifty-Move Rule
A rule allowing a draw to be claimed if fifty consecutive moves pass by both players without a capture or pawn move.
Designed to prevent games from continuing indefinitely when neither side can make progress toward checkmate, particularly in certain theoretically drawn but hard-to-execute endgames.
Etymology
A rule-history term with an unusually well-documented origin. Shatranj had a precursor in the form of a seventy-move rule, and the fifty-move rule proper was introduced by Ruy López in his book of 1561, Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez. The number was contested for centuries: Pietro Carrera (1573–1647) preferred 24 moves and Bourdonnais argued for 60, while the London 1883 rules established the modern mechanic of resetting the count on a capture or pawn move. Endgame analysis then pulled the limit around: FIDE allowed exceptions for certain long endgames from 1928 through 1989, before abolishing all exceptions in 1992 in favour of a strict fifty moves.
First documented: 1561 — Ruy López, Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.