stalemates

Noun

stalemate (countable and uncountable, plural stalemates)

1. The state in which the player to move is not in check but has no legal moves, resulting in a draw.
   • The game is drawn when the player to move has no legal move and his/her king is not in check. The game is said to end in ‘stalemate’. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the stalemate position was in accordance with Article 3 and Articles 4.2 – 4.7.2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2025, page 10
2. (broadly, figuratively) Any situation that has no obvious possible movement, but involves no personal loss.
   • "Short of shooting us all in cold blood how's that going to help you, Mr. Carrados?" asked Larch, coming down to the commonplace of the situation. "It looks like stalemate to me and the sensible thing would be to make it a draw and all call off in good order. […]"1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
3. Any kind of match in which neither contestant laid claim to victory; a draw.

See all 5 meanings of stalemate