Check And Checkmate

Check and Checkmate

It is called 'check' when you or your opponent's King is attacked. There are three ways to get out of check: move your King, block the check with another piece (this can't be done against knights, because they would simply jump over the blocker), or take the checking piece. In the opposite diagram, White's only option is to move his King to one of the highlighted squares.

If you can't do any of these things, you're checkmated, the game is over, and you lose. In chess notation, check is written as a '+' sign, and checkmate is '#' or '++'.

Here, Black has just played Qg2#. At first glance, it would look like White's King can capture the Queen. Actually, this is illegal, because it would place the White King in check from the Rook. Remember: Any move that exposes your King to an attack from any of your opponent's pieces is illegal.

In this (very) complicated position, how many different ways can White check Black's King? Lets count them... the Knight can check two different ways, Nxg7+ and Nxd6+. The white-squared Bishop can take Black's f7 Pawn with check, or move to b5, also checking Black's King. What about the Queen? Can she do anything? Yes! If White's black-squared Bishop moves, the newly opened file exposes Black's King to an attack from White's Queen! That is called a 'discovered check'. Do you see the seven different squares that the Bishop can move to with discovered check?

White played Bxc5+ (check!). Now, Black can move his King to f8 or d7, but not to e7, because he would still be in check. Or, he can block the check with his Queen or one of his Knights. If he moved his Knight on g8, it would be written Ng8-e7, because if it were just Ne7, you wouldn't know which Knight he moved. Because White's capture of the Bishop produced discovered check, White's Bishop is free to retreat after Black responds to the check, without risking capture from Black's d6 pawn.