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When the king is on a square where it could be
captured, we say the king is in "check".
In Diagram 6, White has just played the move Qc6+,
placing the black king in check with the white
queen.
The Laws of Chess now require Black to move out of
check immediately.
Black can move to any of the dotted squares but
cannot move to the squares marked with a cross
because on those squares he remains in check. |  |
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Suppose the white king was not on f7 as in Diagram 6, but on f6 as in Diagram 7. The slightly different position reduces the number of "escape" squares the black king can use to move out of check.
He cannot move to d5 or f3 because he could be captured by the queen and he cannot move to e5 or f5 because he could be captured by the white king.
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When the same formation of pieces is placed so the black king is
on the edge of the board, as in Diagram 8, he loses two more
escape squares! The black king is running out of places to hide.
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When the king is in check and cannot legally move out of check, he is in "checkmate" and the game is over.
In Diagram 9, Black is checkmated.
The shorter term "mate" is often used instead of "checkmate".(More about this in Chapter 4) |
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Exercise 1
Go back to Diagram 8 and find as many squares as you can, for the Queen to move to, that will result in Checkmate.
Exercise 2
Place a black king and a white queen on your chessboard. Make any queen move that checks the king (but not on a square next to the king, because the king will be able to capture the queen). Then move the king out of check.
Do this 20 or 30 times and see how fast you can move the pieces. Do some checks on files, some on ranks and some on diagonals. Do some checks with the queen close to (but not next to) the king and then with each check move your queen further from the king. Then with each check bring the queen back closer to the king. Go as fast as you can.
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