DarwinKoala: At first I thought that enforcing the Ice Age before evaluating the position would be too big an advantage for White because he can mate on move 20, 40, 60 in a conventional way but Black cannot. But maybe this evens out a bit that Black has a serious advantage in always having the last move before the Ice Age.

Bwild: If White had played 40. Bd4 instead of 40. Bb4, then 40.- Re1 would have been mate unless Ice Age takes precedence. But even if it's not mate then it would have been a possbile move because the rook wouldn't freeze with the white Knight on f2 as a neighbor.

I agree with lukulus that it would be more logical when the mate would be checked (and counted) first before the Ice Age occurs, although his example isn't a proof that it's actually handled this way. As far as I can see there is no such proof in the database. I looked at all games which end with a mate after Black's 20th (40th, 60th, ...) move, but all games I've found are by direct contact with the white King or by a Knight's move (see link list below). This is not a positive proof that Ice Age occurs first, because maybe no one yet dared to try to test the behaviour ;) The other positive proof would be a game that continues after a would-be-mate after Black's 40th move, but that is hard to find in the database because in such a game the move wouldn't even be marked as a check, so one would have to go through all games with at least 41, 61, etc. moves. So we should simply wait for the one with the inside knowledge: one short post by Fencer would be enough: "Mate" or "Ice Age"? :-)

20th move
Ronin - talen314
El Cid - Pioneer54
Nuno Reis - pauloaguia

40th move
Franklin - volor
yoyudax - asdf
Jaymom - chudu1980

60th move
diogenysos - basplund
Brainwave - Jatack

P.S.: Well, after looking at all those games once more, in each of them actually an Ice Age occured although it's already mate. Maybe that's an indication that Ice Age occurs first?

FromHell: At first I thought that here on Brainking there couldn't be any atomic stalemate because of the definition of stalemate: "Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves.". As the BK atomic implementation lacks checks, I thought that there can't be any stalemate (at least in legal positions). Your first example proves the contrary!

Concerning your second example I dare to contradict ;) My understanding of the rules is that a King can always move next to the other King, and as they can't capture each other it's not check! So Kb7 and Kd7 are allowed regardless of the check rule. Only for Kb8 and Kd8 the check rule would make a difference.

rabbitoid: "Don't ask me how the black bishop got to b8 :)" No, I won't do this, I just want to know how the black rook got to b7? :-D

Someone: Who has deleted JinkyOngs original post with his two games? Now there are four further posts who don't make sense anymore. In my eyes either his post has to be restored or all subsequent ones have to de deleted as well.

Someone Else: You have asked why I'm sure that JinkyOng isn't Bobby Fischer, but you also deleted your post. Well, I didn't say that, I was just linking to an article where one of JinkyOngs games has been discussed. But now I'm not sure anymore about his identity because I've received a mail which makes it more probable that he is him:

[quote]
Read message

From: JinkyOng
Date and time: 31. March 2006, 17:52:57
Subject: jew

Meine Kampf, read it.
[/quote]

JinkyOng: It has to be "Mein" instead of "Meine"

JinkyOng:
at least you could have chosen some games which were not published previously:
The third coming of Bobby Fischer?