No mating material shouldn't win

The rarity of the single bishop or knight endgame would permit the processing.

We currently have 2 AI servers, which in the near future will run ~4 instances of SF each ( 2 threads for each instance, unless you specifically told your engine to use more cores, it likely only runs on the single thread ). Asking SF to determine if a win is mate in N isn't as hard as asking SF to work out the positional ambiguities in opening theory.

So it's possible, and I'll try discussing it further with Thibault, but my word isn't final, and development time would need to be set aside for the change.

Bringing engine analysis into the mix could prove to be a slippery slope.

For instance, how about: lichess.org/editor/r1b5%2Fk7%2Fp1K5%2F8%2F8%2FB7%2F8%2F8%20w%20KQkq

White, to play and draw, loses on time?

Then there's the ever-popular KBNk mate ... Gs have messed it up. Sure, it can be done in less than the fifty move limit ... but make one lousy little mistake and you're going to exceed it. So what happens if white to play and mate in 20 runs out of time 40 moves after the last capture or pawn move?

I don't have strong views on the matter, other than that whatever solution is adopted should be simple, even at the expense of the occasional absurd result. When it happens to me, I just curse and go on to the next game.

However, I do think lichess should be strong-player-friendly. Why not take a vote? You get one vote for every 20 rating points and another vote for every bullet game (as defined by lichess) played in the last three months.

IMO to be more precise the topic should be : "No mating material shouldn't win on time. With some positions and that require the player to make blunder or selfmate and getting mated by only a bishop or a knight; the player with only King and a bishop or a knight win, but if the opponent exceed the time limit, it is a draw.

In the position #42 if it black turn to move and Bc5+ mate black wins, but if white exceeds the time limit it is a draw and if black he loses.

Oh sorry in the postion # 42 if white to move and Bc5+, mate white wins (if there is black bishop on b8) but if black exceeds the time limit is is a draw and if white he loses.

It would be nice to have a page on the wiki that outlines all of these sorts of server rules.

#42 is not an issue, if black lets the timer run out it is a draw, if black plays white can draw by playing Bc5+ Bd6+.

@Shamanics: But what if it's white to move and he loses on time with a forced draw on the board? What if there have already been two repetitions?

What if you have checkmate in 1 but lose on time? Play faster.

So where do you stand? Do you feel that when your time runs out, you lose, no matter what?