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| If a King is being attacked by an enemy piece it is said to be in check. The diagram on the right shows a King in check. The white Queen is attacking the black King therefore the black King is in check. When a King is in check, the threat must immediately be removed at all cost. An opponent must never be allowed to capture your King. | 
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| There are three ways to get out of check. One way is to capture the piece that is attacking your King. In the original diagram Black's Bishop could take the Queen that is checking his King as the diagram on the left shows. Once the attacker is removed, Black's King is safe. |
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| Another way to get out of check is to block the attack by interposing a piece between the attacking piece and your King. In the original diagram Black's Knight could block the Queen's attack on his King by moving in front of the King as in the diagram on the right. It should be noted that if a Knight is checking a King, interposing doesn't work because of its ability to jump over pieces. | 
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| The last way to get out of check is to simply move your King to another square that is not under attack. In the original position Black's King has four safe squares to move to in order to escape the Queen's attack. The diagram on the left shows the position after the King moved to one of the safe squares. |
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| When your King is in check you should choose the best method for getting out of it. In the example above, capturing the Queen is clearly best. Sometimes, however, all three methods for getting out of check are not available. Then you must choose from the methods that are available. But what if there is NO way to get out of check as in the diagram on the right? This is called checkmate. When a checkmate occurs the game is over. In this case White has checkmated Black's King so White wins the game. | 
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| Sometimes in a game one side won't have any legal moves at all when it is his turn to move as the diagram on the left shows. It is Black's move but there is not one legal move available to him. If he was in check this would be a checkmate and White would win the game but his King is not under attack. This is called a stalemate. Unlike a checkmate, a stalemate is a draw. Many times stalemates happen due to careless play from a winning player, resulting in getting a draw instead of the deserved win. |
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Last modified: 15 February 2004
Roger McIntyre