Every game of chess is about one piece: the king. You never actually capture it. Instead, the game ends the moment a king is attacked and has no way out. Three words describe what can happen to a king, and mixing them up is one of the most common beginner mistakes — sometimes an expensive one.
A king is in check when an enemy piece attacks the square it stands on. That is all check means: “your king is under attack right now”.
Check is not a big event in itself — strong players give and receive dozens in a single game. But it comes with one hard rule: if you are in check, your next move must get you out of it. Nothing else is allowed. You cannot ignore it, and you can never make a move that puts or leaves your own king in check.
There are only three ways to answer a check, and it is worth checking all three every time — beginners often see one and miss a better one.
In the position above Black has all three options, and they are not equal. Stepping aside or blocking leaves the bishop on the board; capturing wins it for free. When you are in check, don’t grab the first escape you see — look for the one that also helps you.
If a king is in check and none of the three escapes works — no safe square, nothing to block with, no way to capture the attacker — it is checkmate, and the game is over. The side that delivered it wins.
This pattern has a name — the back-rank mate — because it catches so many players. The pawns in front of the king look like protection, but here they are a cage: the king cannot move forward, and the rook covers every square along the back row. Black has nothing to block with and nothing that can reach e8. It’s over.
Another checkmate you will meet early, often by falling into it:
The king could normally capture a queen standing right next to it, but not this one: the bishop on c4 guards f7, and a king may never move onto an attacked square. The whole attack works only because Black’s third move, 3…Nf6, ignored the threat to f7. The cure is simple — 3…g6 or 3…Qe7 both defend — and once you know it, this trap never works on you again.
Stalemate is the other side of the coin. It happens when the player to move is not in check, but has no legal move at all. Every move their pieces could make is blocked or would walk the king into check.
Stalemate is not a win. It is a draw — and that surprises almost everyone who learns it.
Look at the position above. White is a whole queen ahead, and the game is still a draw, because Black is not in check and simply has no move to make. The rules do not let you skip a turn, and they do not let you move into check, so the game cannot continue.
That diagram is not a curiosity. It is one of the most common ways to throw away a won game, especially at speed: you are far ahead, you are hunting the lone king, and you take away its last square without giving check.
The habit that prevents it is short. When your opponent has only a king left, or only a king and pieces that cannot move, ask one question before every move: after this, does my opponent still have a legal move? If the answer is no and you are not giving check, find another move. Suppose White’s queen was on d4 a move earlier: Qb6 was the careless move. Qd7 instead leaves the black king one square, b8 — and while it shuffles, the white king walks up and mate follows a few moves later.
| Situation | In check? | Legal moves? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Check | Yes | At least one | The game goes on — you must escape |
| Checkmate | Yes | None | The side that gave mate wins |
| Stalemate | No | None | Draw |
The quickest way to make these ideas automatic is to see them in real positions. Our puzzles are full of checkmates in one and two moves, and a few dozen of them will train your eye to spot both the mate you can give and the one you are about to walk into.
Chess pieces: “cburnett” set by Colin M. L. Burnett, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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