75-Move Rule
A FIDE rule under which the arbiter can declare a draw if 75 consecutive moves are made by each side without a capture or pawn move, even without a player's claim.
Unlike the standard fifty-move rule, which requires a player to claim the draw, the 75-move rule lets the arbiter step in automatically once the threshold is reached, closing a gap left when increment time controls made manual claims impractical.
Etymology
The name is purely descriptive of the move count, following the pattern of the much older fifty-move rule, which was introduced into chess by Ruy Lopez in his 1561 book and had a seventy-move precursor in shatranj. The number 75 had appeared once before in FIDE law: in 1989 Article 10.9 was changed to 75 moves for a specified list of difficult endgames, before the count reverted to 50 moves for all positions. The modern automatic rule is different in kind and dates from the Laws of Chess for competitions starting on or after 1 July 2014, adopted at the 84th FIDE Congress in Tallinn, whose Article 9.6b stated that the game is drawn if any consecutive series of 75 moves have been completed by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture, and that if the last move resulted in checkmate, that shall take precedence. The FIDE Arbiters' Commission describes this as the Rules Commission's first attempt to solve the problem of no claim being made under the 50-move rule. In the current Laws, in force from 1 January 2023, it is Article 9.6.2 and reads any series of at least 75 moves.
First documented: 2014 — FIDE Laws of Chess: For competitions starting on or after 1 July 2014, Article 9.6b, adopted at the 84th FIDE Congress at Tallinn
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.