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Check, checkmate and draws

What to do when you're in check, how you win, and the ways a game can be drawn.

On this page
  1. Check
  2. Checkmate: winning the game
  3. Resigning
  4. Draws
  5. Stalemate: careful when you're winning

Knowing what counts as a win or a draw makes it much easier to play chess without surprises.

Check

When an enemy piece could capture your king on its next move, your king is in check. The game shows "Check!", and the king's square changes colour.

When you're in check, your move must get you out of check. Nothing else is allowed. There are only three ways to do it:

  1. Move the king to a square that isn't attacked.
  2. Block: put one of your pieces between the attacking piece and your king. (You can't block a knight.)
  3. Capture the piece that is giving check.
The rook on e1 is giving check to the black king on e8. Black must get out of check.

You also may never move your own king onto a square where it could be captured.

Checkmate: winning the game

If your king is in check and none of the three ways out works, it is checkmate, and you lose. The king is never actually captured: the game ends the moment it is checkmated.

Back-rank mate: the rook on a8 gives check. The black king is boxed in by its own pawns, can't block and can't capture the rook. Black is checkmated.

This kind of mate, with the king shut in on the back rank by its own pawns, is very common. To guard against it, when you have a spare move, push one of the pawns in front of your king forward a square so the king has an escape square.

Resigning

If you think the game is lost, you can press "Resign" and the game counts as a loss. Against the computer, you can still press "Undo" afterwards to go back and try again.

Draws

In these cases the game is a draw, and neither side wins:

CaseWhat it means
StalemateThe side to move is not in check, but has no legal move at all
Insufficient materialThe pieces left can't checkmate either side, for example when both sides have only a king, or just one extra knight or bishop
Threefold repetitionThe same position (same side to move, same pieces on the same squares) appears for the third time
Fifty-move ruleEach side has made 50 moves in a row with no capture and no pawn move

In official tournaments, a player has to claim a draw by threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule. In this game, the draw happens automatically.

Stalemate: careful when you're winning

Stalemate usually happens when one side is far ahead. Your opponent has only a king left, and you accidentally take away every square it could go to without giving check. That is not a win; it is a draw.

Black to move. The black king isn't in check, but White controls g8, h7 and g7, so Black has no move at all: stalemate.

When you're close to checkmate, check before every move: does the other king still have a square to go to? If not, does your move give check?

The most common stalemate traps, and how to aim for one when you're losing, are covered in Stalemate.

To practise checkmating, go back to chess online and play a few games on the easiest level.

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