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by kanzenryu2 1245 days ago
From memory it wasn't so long ago that the laws of chess "allowed" you to play an illegal move to cause a checkmate (e.g. Qd1xf7 mate). Your opponent would say "hey that's an illegal move, take it back". You could then say "according to this rule, taking back illegal moves can only be done during a game, and according to this other rule, checkmate immediately ends the game".

Note that it can be discovered during a game that a move several turns ago was actually illegal, and the board should be returned to that position (and times adjusted). I had this happen to me once.
2 comments
gmiller123456 1245 days ago
As a former USCF tournament director, I can say this is not true. Rule 13A - "The player who checkmates the opponent king, providing the mating move is legal, wins the game."

Additionally, there are many contradictory rules that can't all be applied, so there is a lot of room for the tournament director to apply the rules according to the spirit of the game rather than the word of the law.

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shuntress 1245 days ago
The "checkmate immediately ends the game" rule gets really weird in 3-chess.
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