# Stalemate against two queens: the draw I didn't earn in game 1472 > Stalemate against two queens saved my game 1472: down to a bare king, I drew when Black missed mate in one. Five verified boards show how I got there. - URL: https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/journey/opening-lesson-game-1472/ - Updated: 2026-11-02 - Author: Ignacio Soler Stalemate against two queens is what saved game 1472. By move 63 I had a bare king on f8 against two black queens and a bishop, and **achanta4 (1328)** had several mates in one. Black played a queen move that left my king with no legal move and not in check, and the game was drawn. I didn't earn that half point: the saved analysis shows me missing four winning moves in the middlegame, then losing the position with one king walk on move 43. ## The recorded game I played this game on **April 19, 2025** as **White**, on my Chess.com account **nacsol3**. The rating recorded for this game was **1308**. It was a ten-minute rapid game without increment, part of the sequence behind the [From 631 to 1385 journey](/journey/). | Detail | Saved record | |---|---| | Game | 1472 | | Opening | Queen's Pawn Opening, Zukertort Variation (D02) | | Result | Draw (1/2-1/2), by stalemate | | My accuracy | 78.1% (Black 78.0%) | | My blunders / mistakes / inaccuracies | 7 / 3 / 3 | | Accuracy by phase | Opening 95.9%, middlegame 68.1%, endgame 100% | | My best winning chance in the game | 90.9% | | Original score | [Chess.com game](https://www.chess.com/game/live/137551439072) | I came into this game on four wins in a row (games 1468 to 1471). After it, I lost the next two, 1473 and 1474. The [weekly diary](/journey/week-2025-w16/) has the whole week. ## How the opening went The moves were 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 e6 3.Nf3 c6 4.e3 Be7 5.Nbd2 Nf6 6.c3 O-O 7.Bd3 Qb6 8.b4 Nbd7 9.a4 Qd8 10.O-O Ne8 11.Qc2 f5 12.a5. It is my usual London-style setup: the bishop out to f4 before e3, the pawns on c3, d4 and e3, and the bishop on d3. On the queenside my b- and a-pawns took space. Black retreated the queen and the knight, and the engine marks both retreats as inaccuracies. After 12.a5 the evaluation was **+1.66** for me. This is the part of the game I can repeat: 95.9% accuracy over 12 moves and no move of mine marked as an error. Then 12...Bd6 13.Bxd6 Nxd6 14.Nb3 a6 15.Nc5, and my knight landed on c5, in front of Black's queenside pawns. ## Position 1: move 16, the knight capture I didn't make Black answered 15...Ne4, a blunder in the saved analysis: from **+1.27 to +6.26**. I had to see why. > **Game 1472, White to move on move 16** > Position (FEN): `r1bq1rk1/1p1n2pp/p1p1p3/P1Np1p2/1P1Pn3/2PBPN2/2Q2PPP/R4RK1 w - - 2 16` > Played: Bxe4 — Bishop takes the knight on e4 (a trade) > Better: Nxe6 — Knight takes the pawn on e6: a double attack on the queen on d8 and the rook on f8 I took the knight on e4 with my bishop, and Black took back with the f-pawn. The checker describes the engine's move like this: the knight takes the pawn on e6 and attacks the queen on d8 and the rook on f8 at the same time. A double attack is one move that makes two threats, so the opponent can only save one thing. Stockfish's line is 16.Nxe6 Qe7 17.Nxf8 Kxf8 18.c4: I win a rook. After my trade on e4 the evaluation was **+0.83**. What made Nxe6 possible was the pawn move 11...f5. Once that pawn left, the pawn on e6 was no longer covered by another pawn, and my knight on c5 was already attacking it. ## Position 2: move 26, the rook that was left hanging The middlegame got sharp. I played 20.g4 and 21.h4, and the engine marks both pawn moves as mistakes; it preferred pushing the f-pawn. Black gave a rook for my knight on e5 (21...Rxe5 22.dxe5) and took my h-pawn with the queen. A few moves later, Black played 25...Rf8, a blunder (from -0.07 to **+3.80**). > **Game 1472, White to move on move 26** > Position (FEN): `5rk1/1p1bq1pp/p1p1p3/P2pP3/1P4P1/2P1PQ2/5R2/R5K1 w - - 3 26` > Played: Qg2 — Queen from f3 to g2 (my rook on f2 now faces the rook on f8) > Better: Qxf8+ — Queen takes the rook on f8 with check, and attacks the queen on e7 The rook on f8 was attacked twice, by my queen on f3 and my rook on f2, and defended by Black's queen and king. Stockfish's first choice was simply to take it: 26.Qxf8+ Qxf8 27.Rxf8+ Kxf8, and today's check rates that as "white is winning". I moved my queen away to g2 instead, and Black traded rooks on f2. The evaluation went to **+0.22**. ## Moves 31 to 39: the same story, three more times It kept happening. On move 31 Black's king walked to h7 (a blunder to +3.35) and I pushed 31.e4; the engine wanted my queen on f7 (back to +0.25). On move 34 I had +2.41 and played 34.Qd4 instead of bringing the rook to e1 (+0.62). On move 37 I had **+5.90** after a queen check on f8, then retreated the queen to f4 instead of putting it on d6 (+0.80). The review marks one move of mine from that phase as a good moment: 38.Kg3, which was also Stockfish's choice and kept **+3.96**. My king walked up the board and was fine there. But on the very next move I took a pawn on g4 with my queen, and the engine preferred the queen on g5 (from +3.70 to +0.64). Then Black's queen took my pawns on e5, c3 and b4, and by move 43 the evaluation was **0.00**. ## Position 3: move 43, the king walk > **Game 1472, White to move on move 43 (the turning point)** > Position (FEN): `8/1p4pk/p1p5/P2p4/1q2b1QK/8/8/5R2 w - - 0 43` > Played: Kg5 — King from h4 to g5 > Better: Qh5+ — Queen from g4 to h5, check This is the turning point in the saved analysis. My king was on h4, my queen on g4. I walked the king forward to g5. Stockfish's choice was a queen check on h5, which the checker rates as "about equal". After my king move the evaluation was **-7.49**. The engine's line explains it. Black checked with the queen on e7, my king went to h5, and Black's g-pawn gave another check, 44...g6+. My queen had to take on g6 and Black's bishop took my queen with check. From there I only had a rook against a queen, a bishop and pawns. Black's queen won my a-pawn and then my rook, and on move 59 Black's d-pawn promoted to a second queen. A king walk worked on move 38. The same idea on move 43 put my king next to Black's pawns, where a pawn could give check. ## Position 4: move 63, stalemate > **Game 1472, Black to move on move 63** > Position (FEN): `5K2/1p5k/p1q3b1/3q4/8/8/8/8 b - - 7 63` > Played: Qdd7 — Queen from d5 to d7: stalemate > Better: Qdd6# — Queen from d5 to d6: checkmate My king was on f8 and I had nothing else. Black's two queens and the bishop on g6 were around it. Stockfish's first choices from today's check are all mate in one: a queen to c5, e8 or f7, and the saved analysis lists the queen to d6. Black played the queen from d5 to d7 instead. My king was not in check and had no square to go to, and I had no other piece to move. That is stalemate: the side to move has no legal move and is not in check, and the game ends as a draw. The clock record says Black had 10.1 seconds after that move, and I had 32. ## The lesson of game 1472 There are two lessons, and only one of them is about Black. The first one is mine. In a game where my opening was almost perfect, my winning chances reached 90.9%, and five times Stockfish had me clearly ahead before my move (moves 16, 26, 31, 34 and 37). Each time, the engine's choice was the most forcing move: a capture with a double attack, taking a rook, a queen move close to the king. Each time I chose a quieter move. My review question from this game is: what does the most forcing move on the board do? For more on that pattern, I have an [answer on why winning positions get lost](/answers/why-do-i-keep-losing-winning-positions-in-chess/). The second one is Black's, and I'm keeping it for my own wins: with a big material advantage and little time, look at the enemy king's squares before every quiet move. I wrote about a smaller stalemate save in [game 627](/journey/opening-lesson-game-627/). ## Where this sits in the journey The recorded ratings go 1307 for game 1471, 1308 for this game and 1300 for game 1473. Those numbers describe what happened next; they don't show that this review changed anything. If you want to review your own games this way, the [beginner game-review guide](/guides/how-to-analyze-chess-games-as-a-beginner/) shows the method, and [Chess Coach in Claude or ChatGPT](/connect/) reviews a finished game with these same boards and arrows. The [journey hub](/journey/) has the rest of the series. ## FAQ ### How did game 1472 end in stalemate? On move 63 I only had my king left, against two black queens and a bishop. Black moved a queen to d7, my king on f8 had no legal move and was not in check, so the game was drawn by stalemate. Stockfish shows several moves that were mate in one instead. ### Was I winning before that? Several times. Stockfish's best winning chance for me in the game was 90.9%, and on moves 16, 26, 31, 34 and 37 the engine had me clearly or completely winning before my move. ### Which move lost the game for me? 43.Kg5, a king walk towards Black's pawns. The evaluation went from 0.00 to -7.49; Stockfish wanted a queen check on h5 that kept the balance. ### What opening was game 1472? Chess.com called it the Queen's Pawn Opening, Zukertort Variation (D02). I played d4, Bf4, Nf3, e3, Nbd2, c3 and Bd3, and my opening accuracy was 95.9%. ## Related - [From 631 to 1385: my chess journey in 2,117 games](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/journey.md) - [Week 66 (Apr 2025): the Modern Defense lifts me to 1317](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/journey/week-2025-w16.md) - [King and pawn vs king: the stalemate that saved my draw](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/journey/opening-lesson-game-627.md) - [How to analyze chess games as a beginner (6 steps)](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/guides/how-to-analyze-chess-games-as-a-beginner.md)