Inchess and similar games,check is a condition that occurs when a player'sking is under threat ofcapture on the opponent's next turn. A king so threatened is said to bein check. A player must get out of check if possible by moving the king to an unattacked square,interposing apiece between the threatening piece and the king, or capturing the threatening piece. If the player cannot remove the check by any of these options, or if using any of these options would result in the player being in check by another piece, the game ends incheckmate and the player loses. Players cannot make any move that puts their own king in check.
Black must address the check from the bishop despite the pin against the white king. |
White has been checkmated. The king cannot escape check and White has lost the game.
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A check is the result of a move that places the opposing king under an immediate threat of capture by one (or, in rare cases,two) of the player's pieces. Making a move that checks is sometimes called "giving check". Even if a piece ispinned against the player's own king, it may still give check. For example, in the diagrammed position, White has just played Be4+, simultaneously giving check and blocking the check from Black's rook. Black must now address the check; the fact that the bishop cannot legally move is irrelevant. If the king is in check and the checked player has no legal move to get out of check, the king ischeckmated and the player loses.
Under thestandard rules of chess, a player may not make any move that places or leaves their king in check. A player may move the king, capture the threatening piece, orblock the check with another piece.[1] A king cannot itself directly check the opposing king, since this would place the first king in check as well. A move of the king could expose the opposing king to adiscovered check (and, rarely, checkmate) by another piece, however.
Infast chess, depending on the rules in effect, placing or leaving one's king in check may result in immediate loss of the game. If it does not, then the move is simply undone, and the other player usually receives extra time as a penalty to the player who failed to notice the check.
There may be up to three ways to get a king out of a single check (check delivered by just one enemy piece):
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 |          | 8 | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
In the position in the diagram, White can get out of check by any of three methods:
If a king is placed indouble check, the king must get out of both checks on the following move. Since it is impossible to capture both checking pieces or block both lines of attack in a single move, a double check can be escaped only by moving the king.[3]
Sometimes a given check is part of achess tactic such as afork, askewer, or adiscovered attack on another piece. In some cases, a check can be used to defend against such tactics.
There are also a few more special types of check:
The idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing "check" in modern terminology) is present in the earliest descriptions of chess rules, in Persian/Arabian manuscripts.[6] This was done to avoid the early and accidental end of a game. Later the Persians added the additional rule that a king could not be moved into check or left in check. As a result, the king could not be captured (Davidson 1949:22).
In this usage, the words "check" and "chess" come via Arabic from Persianshāh, meaning "king"[7] or "monarch" (Murray 2012:159).
Less commonly (and obsolete), the warninggarde can be said when a player directly attacks the opponent'squeen in a similar way. This was mostly abandoned in the 19th century (Hooper & Whyld 1992:74). A move can be both check andgarde simultaneously. Before the queen acquired its current move (about 1495) the rook was the most powerful piece. At that time the termcheck-rook was used for a move that checked the king and attacked a rook at the same time (Hooper & Whyld 1992:75).
Until the early 20th century a player was expected to announce "check" when making a checking move, and some sources of rules even allowed a player to ignore an unannounced check (Hooper & Whyld 1992:74).
In informal games, most players still announce "check"; however, this is no longer required under therules of chess and is not encouraged in formal games (Just & Burg 2003:28). In theFIDE rules forrapid chess, if a player leaves or places their king in check or commits any other illegal move, their opponent can claim a win.[8]
Inalgebraic chess notation, a "+" is normally written after a checking move. A minority of publications, most notablyECO, omit any mention of check.
Sometimes checking an opponent provides no benefit to the checking player. This is called a "useless check" and it may even provide the checked opponent with atempo (move opportunity) to move the king into a safer position (Hooper & Whyld 1992:437). For example, 1.e4 e6 2.d4 Bb4+? does nothing for Black and in fact causes him to lose a tempo after 3.c3! A check given with the sole intention of delaying an inevitable defeat by one move is referred to as a "spite check", and may be considered somewhat unsporting (Eade 2005:65).
There are many instances, however, when checking the opponent's king may be a useful tactic or part of a tactic, either in attacking or in defense. Checking is often used incombinations with many other tactics or simply toforce an opponent into a position where their king can be checkmated, otherwise taken advantage of, or is otherwise worse for the opponent. Some attacks involve numerous checks to force an opponent into a losing position, especially when the king is exposed.
Some uses of checking:
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