Entablar

[Rusty]

entablar
= to enter into (an agreement)
= to strike up (a friendship), to start/begin/initiate (a friendship, a business deal)
= to set up (a game)
= to stalemate (in chess) Thanks, Lee Ying.

[Elaina]

Actually, I think he means........

El juego quedó entablado.
The game ended in a tie.

Tablas/entablado = tied game (or whatever) (one of the meanings)

Has anyone ever heard it used like this before?

[Rusty]

Oh, I'm sure that is what he meant, too. He particularly mentioned chess, so I introduced him to the correct English translation. Your translation also works other games.

[Sr. Johnson]

In the case you're talking about with chess or checkers, I think it is called "stale mate" or draw. It happens in both games but much more often in checkers, i think. El juego quedó entablado. = The game was played to a draw, ended in a stale mate, ended in a draw. There is a difference between a stale mate (neither player has one but no legal moves can be made) and a tie (the score is the same at the end of the game.) Is there a difference in Spanish vocabulary for that? I don't know.

[JPablo]

To tie = empatar
To stalemate = quedar en tablas /entablar.