Chess Check

Marble Chess Board

Checkmate is another way of saying that a King is lost. A King that is checkmated will not be able to move anywhere without being captured. That means the game has ended. As long as a King can move, in basic chess, the chess game can continue. There are other issues involved as you learn more strategies. When a King plays chess without being captured, the game goes on.

Whenever a King chess piece is attacked, he is said to be "in check." Looking at the diagram below will show you that the Black's Queen is "giving check" to the White King. The Queen's capturing powers are dynamic. 

Black Queen giving check

Protecting the King is your most important job. Whenever he is "in check", or about to be checkmated and can not move, you need to move him and take measures to get him out of check. There are so many ways to do this, and it depends on what pieces you have on the board. But you can remember two things:

1. Move the King out of the range of the chess piece that is attacking him. 
2. Block the attack on your King with your other chess piece. There are different ways to do this. You can block the King by your chess piece and you can put one of your pieces in a position to attack the opponent and capture it before it moves to attack the King.

White King moving out of check

The White King moved closer to his own team in this case. Where the King moves would depend on where each of the opponents and his chess pieces are.

As you study opening moves, you will learn where to keep certain chess pieces in place for readiness to protect the King.

The diagram on the left shows the King moving out of check. See the diagram below for another method to prevent checkmate.

Bishop captures Black Queen

The second method of keeping away from a checkmate situation is to attack and capture the opponents piece that is giving the check.
The White Bishop captured the Black Queen and put an end to the check. See the diagram on the left.

This is why you need to learn to set up your chess pieces at the beginning of the chess game so that you can anticipate and be ready for any move for your King being checkmated.

Checkmate

Your most important job is to protect your King, but also to put yourself into the position of checkmating your opponent King.

Critical thinking strategy: Plan your moves ahead, keep remembering the different moves of the chess pieces while protecting your King and working toward checkmating the opponent King. Winning chess games depend on it.

Other Check Strategies:
Discovered Check
Double Check
Forked Check

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