Chess rules
Check and Checkmate in Chess
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Check means your king is under attack — you must respond immediately and remove the threat. Checkmate means your king is in check and there is no legal way out: the game ends instantly and the side delivering mate wins.
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The three ways to escape check
When your king is in check you are not allowed to ignore it — your only legal moves are ones that get the king out of attack. There are exactly three options, and you must use one of them:
- Move the king to a safe square (not into another check).
- Block a line check from a rook, bishop, or queen by interposing a piece; a knight, pawn, or adjacent sliding-piece check cannot be blocked.
- Capture the piece that is giving check, with the king or another piece, if the resulting position is legal.
Checkmate: when none of the three works
Checkmate is simply a check you cannot escape — there is no safe square, no piece can block, and the checking piece cannot be captured. The game ends at once; you never actually capture the king. In the position below, the white rook delivers a classic back-rank mate: the black king is in check on the 8th rank and its own pawns block every escape.
Check is a tool, not a goal
A check is useful when it wins time for a concrete purpose: mate, material, a better king position, or another forced gain. An unproductive check may simply improve the opposing king. Double check is a special case: because two attacks reach the king at once, the answer must be a king move. That king move may capture one checker if the destination is not attacked by the other piece.