Checkmate - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Checkmate is a situation in chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

(and in other boardgames of the chaturanga

Chaturanga

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game that is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi.Chaturanga developed in Gupta India around the 6th century...

family) in which one player's king

King (chess)

In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...

is threatened with capture (in check) and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured. Delivering checkmate is the ultimate goal in chess: a player who is checkmated loses the game. In normal chess the king is never actually captured – the game ends as soon as the king is checkmated because checkmate leaves the defensive player with no legal moves.Under US Chess Federation rules for blitz chess, which is fast chess with no more than 9 minutes per player, there is an optional variation of the rules that allows the king to be captured (with loss of the game) if a player leaves it in check . In practice, most players resign an inevitably lost game before being checkmated. It is considered bad etiquette to continue playing in a completely hopeless position .Hooper and Whyld write: "Weak players seldom resign because frequent blunders

Blunder (chess)

In chess, a blunder is a very bad move. It is usually caused by some tactical oversight, whether from time trouble, overconfidence or carelessness. While a blunder may seem like a stroke of luck for the opposing player, some chess players give their opponent plenty of opportunities to blunder.What...

swing the advantage, and stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

is a common resource. At a competent level it is considered discourteous to play on in a clearly lost position..." . Burgess says "While it is bad etiquette to refuse to resign in a completely hopeless position, if you are in any doubt as to whether your position is hopeless, play on.".

If a king is under attack but the threat can be met, then the king is said to be in check, but is not in checkmate. If a player is not in check but has no legal move (that is, every possible move would put the king in check), the result of the game is stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

, and the game ends in a draw

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

(but in other variants, it is a loss for the stalemated player). (See rules of chess

Rules of chess

The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...

.)

A checkmating move is denoted in algebraic chess notation

Algebraic chess notation

Algebraic notation is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers...

with the hash symbol (#) – for example, 34.Qh8# or by "++". (The symbol "++" is sometimes used to indicate double check

Double check

In chess, a double check is a check delivered by two pieces at the same time. In chess notation, it is often symbolized by "++".-Discussion:...

Examples

A checkmate may occur in as few as two moves with all of the pieces

Chess piece

Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...

still on the board

Chessboard

A chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...

(as in Fool's mate

Fool's mate

Fool's Mate, also known as the Two-Move Checkmate, is the quickest possible checkmate in the game of chess. A prime example consists of the moves:leading to the position shown...

, in the opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

phase of the game), in a middlegame position (as in the 1956 game called the Game of the Century between Donald Byrne

Donald Byrne

Donald Byrne was one of the USA's strongest chess players during the 1950s and 1960s.Born in New York City, he won the U.S. Open Chess Championship in 1953, was awarded the International Master title by FIDE in 1962, and played for or captained five U.S. Chess Olympiad teams between 1962 and 1972...

and Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...

), or after many moves with as few as three pieces in an endgame position.

Two major pieces

Two major pieces (queens

Queen (chess)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...

or rooks

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

) can easily force checkmate on the edge of the board, even without the help of their king. The process is to put the two pieces on adjacent ranks or files and gradually force the king to the side of the board, where one piece keeps the king on the edge of the board while the other delivers checkmate .

In the first diagram, White checkmates easily by forcing the black king to the edge a rank at a time or a file at a time:

1. Qg5+ Kd4

2. Rf4+ Ke3

3. Qg3+ Ke2

4. Rf2+ Ke1

5. Qg1# (second diagram) .

The checkmate with two queens or with two rooks is similar .
Checkmate can be forced even away from the edge of the board with two rooks and a king, or with a queen, rook, and king, while two queens are able to force checkmate in the center without the help of the king .

Basic checkmates

Here are the common fundamental checkmates when one side has only his king

Bare king

In chess and related games, a bare king is a situation in which one player has only the king left on the board, while that player's fifteen other pieces have been captured....

and the other side has only the minimum material needed to force checkmate, i.e. (1) one queen

Queen (chess)

, (2) one rook

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

, (3) two bishops

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

on opposite-colored squares, or (4) a bishop and a knight

Knight (chess)

The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...

. The king must help in accomplishing all of these checkmates. If the superior side has more material, checkmates are easier .

The checkmate with the queen is the most important, but it is also very easy to achieve. It often occurs after a pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

has queened

Promotion (chess)

Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...

. The next most important one is the checkmate with the rook, and it is also very easy to achieve. The checkmates with the two bishops and with a bishop and knight are not nearly as important, since they only occur infrequently. The two bishop checkmate is fairly easy to accomplish, but the bishop and knight checkmate

Bishop and knight checkmate

The bishop and knight checkmate in chess is the checkmate of a lone king which can be forced by a bishop, knight, and king. With the stronger side to move and with perfect play, checkmate can be forced in at most thirty-three moves from any starting position where the defender cannot quickly win...

is difficult and requires precision.

King and queen

The first two diagrams show representatives of the basic checkmate positions with a queen

Queen (chess)

, which can occur on any edge of the board. Naturally, the exact position can vary from the diagram.
In the first of the checkmate positions, the queen is directly in front of the opposing king and the white king is protecting its queen. In the second checkmate position, the kings are in opposition

Opposition (chess)

In chess, opposition is the situation occurring when two kings face each other on a rank or file, with only one square in between them. In such a situation, the player not having to move is said to "have the opposition" . It is a special type of zugzwang and most often occurs in endgames with...

and the queen mates on the rank (or file) of the king. See Wikibooks - Chess/The Endgame for a demonstration of how the king and queen versus king mate is achieved.
With the side with the queen to move, checkmate can be forced in at most ten moves from any starting position, with optimal play by both sides, but usually fewer moves are required
. . In positions in which a pawn has just promoted

Promotion (chess)

to a queen, at most nine moves are required . In this position, White checkmates by confining the black king to a rectangle and shrinking the rectangle to force the king to the edge of the board:

1. Qf6 Kd5

2. Qe7 Kd4

3. Kc2 Kd5

4. Kc3 Kc6

5. Kc4 Kb6

6. Qd7 Ka6

7. Qb5+ Ka7

8. Kc5 Ka8

9. Kc6 Ka7

10. Qb7# .

The superior side must be careful to not stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

the opposing king, whereas the defender would like to get into such a position. There are two general types of stalemate positions that can occur, which the winning side must avoid .

King and rook

The first diagram shows the basic checkmate position with a rook

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

, which can occur on any edge of the board. The black king can be on any square on the edge of the board, the white king is in opposition to it, and the rook can check from any square on the rank or file (assuming that it can not be captured). The second diagram shows a slightly different position where the kings are not in opposition but the defending king must be in a corner.

With the side with the rook to move, checkmate can be forced in at most sixteen moves from any starting position . Again, see Wikibooks - Chess/The Endgame for a demonstration of how the king and rook versus king mate is achieved.
In this position, White checkmates by confining the black king to a rectangle and shrinking the rectangle to force the king to the edge of the board:

1. Kd3+ Kd5

2. Re4 Kd6

3. Kc4! Kc6

4. Re6+ Kc7

5. Kc5 Kd7

6. Kd5 Kc7

7. Rd6 Kb7

8. Rc6 Ka7

9. Kc5 Kb7

10. Kb5 Ka7

11. Rb6 Ka8

12. Kc6 Ka7

13. Kc7 Ka8

14. Ra6# (second checkmate position)

There are two stalemate positions to watch out for: :

King and two bishops

Here are the two basic checkmate positions with two bishops

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

(on opposite-colored squares), which can occur in any corner. (Two or more bishops on the same color, which could occur because of pawn promotion

Promotion (chess)

, cannot checkmate.) The first is a checkmate in the corner. The second one is a checkmate in a side square next to the corner square. With the side with the bishops to move, checkmate can be forced in at most nineteen moves .
It is not too difficult for two bishops to force checkmate, with the aid of their king. Two principles apply:

The bishops are best when they are near the center of the board and on adjacent diagonals. This cuts off the opposing king.
The king must be used aggressively, in conjunction with the bishops.

In the position from Seirawan, White wins by first forcing the black king to the side of the board, then to a corner, and then checkmates. It can be any side of the board and any corner. The process is:

1. Ke2 Ke4 (Black tries to keep his king near the center)

2. Be3 Ke5 (forcing the king back, which is done often)

3. Kd3 Kd5

4. Bd4 Ke6

5. Ke4 Kd6 (Black tries a different approach to stay near the center)

6. Bc4 (White has a fine position. The bishops are centralized and the king is active.)

6... Kc6 (Black avoids going toward the side)

7. Ke5 Kd7 (Black is trying to avoid the a8 corner)

8. Bd5 (keeping the black king off c6)

8... Kc7

9. Bc5 Kd7

10. Bd6! (an important move that forces the king to the edge of the board)

10... Ke8 (Black is still avoiding the corner)

11. Ke6 (now the black king cannot get off the edge of the board)

11... Kd8

12. Bc6 (forcing the king toward the corner)

12... Kc8 (Black's king is confined to c8 and d8. The white king must cover a7 and b7)

13. Kd5 (13. Ke7? is stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

)

13...Kd8

14. Kc5 Kc8

15. Kb6 Kd8 (Now White must allow the king to move into the corner)

16. Bc5 Kc8

17. Be7! (an important move that forces the king toward the corner)

17... Kb8

18. Bd7! (the same principle as the previous move)

18... Ka8

19. Bd8 (White must make a move that gives up a tempo

Tempo (chess)

In chess, tempo refers to a "turn" or single move. When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer move, he "gains a tempo" and conversely when he takes one more move than necessary he "loses a tempo"...

. This move is such a move, along with Bc5, Bf8, Be6, or Ka6.)

19... Kb8

20. Bc7+ Ka8

21. Bc6#, as in the first diagram in this section .

Note that this is not the shortest forced checkmate from this position. Müller and Lamprecht give a fifteen move solution, however it contains an inaccurate move by Black (according to endgame tablebase

Endgame tablebase

An endgame tablebase is a computerized database that contains precalculated exhaustive analysis of a chess endgame position. It is typically used by a computer chess engine during play, or by a human or computer that is retrospectively analysing a game that has already been played.The tablebase...

s) . With optimal play by both sides, checkmate in this position requires seventeen moves. An optimal variation is

1. Ke2 Ke4

2. Be3 Ke5

3. Kd3 Kd5

4. Bd4 Ke6

5. Ke4 Kd6

6. Bb5! (the only move winning in 12 moves from this position)

6...Ke6

7. Be5 Ke7

8. Kf5 Kd8

9. Ke6 Kc8

10. Kd6 Kb8

11. Kc6+ Kc8

12. Bd6 Kd8

13. Kb6 Kc8

14. Be7 Kb8

15. Ba6 Ka8

16. Bb7+ Kb8

17. Bd6#, as in the second diagram.

King, bishop and knight

Of the basic checkmates, this is the most difficult one to force, because these two pieces cannot form a linear barrier to the enemy king from a distance. Also, the checkmate can be forced only in a corner that the bishop controls.

Here are the two basic checkmate positions with a bishop

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

and a knight

Knight (chess)

, or the bishop and knight checkmate

Bishop and knight checkmate

. The first position is a checkmate by the bishop, with the king in the corner. The second position is a checkmate by the knight, with the king in a side square next to the corner. Alternatively, the knight can be on c6 or d7 in the second position.

With the side with the bishop and knight to move, checkmate can be forced in at most thirty-three moves from any starting position , except those in which the defending king is initially forking

Fork (chess)

In chess, a fork is a tactic that uses a single piece to attack multiple pieces at the same time. The attacker usually hopes to gain material by capturing one of the opponent's pieces. The defender often finds himself in a difficult position in which he cannot counter all threats. The attacking...

the bishop and knight and it is not possible to defend both. However, the mating process

Bishop and knight checkmate

requires accurate play, since a few errors could result in a draw

Draw (chess)

either by the fifty-move rule or stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

.

Opinions differ as to whether or not or not a player should learn this checkmate procedure. James Howell omits the checkmate with two bishops in his book because it rarely occurs but includes the bishop and knight checkmate. Howell says that he has had it three times (always on the defending side) and that it occurs more often than the checkmate with two bishops . On the other hand, Jeremy Silman

Jeremy Silman

Jeremy Silman is an American International Master of chess. He has won the US Open, the American Open, and the National Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team...

includes the checkmate with two bishops but not the bishop plus knight checkmate because he has had it only once and his friend John Watson

John L. Watson

John Leonard Watson is a chess International Master and author.Watson was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He was educated at Brownell-Talbot, Harvard, and the University of California at San Diego, where he took his degree in engineering...

has never had it . Silman says

"...mastering it would take a significant chunk of time. Should the chess hopeful really spend many of his precious hours he's put aside for chess study learning an endgame he will achieve (at most) only once or twice in his lifetime?"

Two knights

It is impossible to force checkmate with a king and two knights, although checkmate positions are possible (see the first diagram). In the second diagram, if Black plays 1... Ka8? White can checkmate with 2. Nbc7#, but Black can play 1... Kc8 and escape the threat. The defender's task is easy — he simply has to avoid moving into a position in which he can be checkmated on the next move, and he always has another move available in such situations .

In the third diagram, White can play 1. Nc6+ Ka8, but now if White plays 2. Nb5 threatening 3. Nc7#, Black is stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

d. It is sometimes possible to force checkmate with two knights against a pawn, because in some positions, having a pawn removes this stalemate defence.

Under some circumstances, two knights and a king can force checkmate against a king and pawn (or rarely more pawns). The winning plan, quite difficult to execute in practice, is to blockade the enemy pawn(s) with one of the knights, maneuver the enemy king into a stalemated position, then bring the other knight over to checkmate. (See two knights endgame.)

Three knights

Three knights and a king can force checkmate against a lone king within twenty moves (assuming that the lone king cannot quickly win a knight) . These situations are generally only seen in chess problems, since at least one of the knights must be a promoted piece

Promotion (chess)

, and there is very rarely a reason (e.g., avoidance of stalemate) to promote a pawn to anything other than a queen (see underpromotion).

Rare checkmate positions

In some rare positions it is possible to force checkmate with a king and bishop versus a king and pawn or a king and knight versus a king and pawn.

Stamma's mate

In the diagram showing Stamma's mate (named for Philipp Stamma), White to move wins :

1. Nb4+ Ka1

2. Kc1 a2

3. Nc2#

White also wins if Black is to move first:

1. ... Ka1

2. Nc1 a2

3. Nb3#

This checkmate has occurred in actual games, see the game between Jesus Nogueiras

Jesus Nogueiras

Jesus Nogueiras is a Cuban chess Grandmaster. He was a World Championship Candidates in 1985–87. Major tournament victories include winning the Cuban Chess Championship five times the Capablanca Memorial in 1984 and the Torre Memorial in 1997.-External links:...

and Maikel Gongora from the 2001 Cuban Championship

Cuban Chess Championship

In the second part of the 19th century, Celso Golmayo Zúpide had been generally accepted as Cuban champion since his 1862 match defeat of Félix Sicre. In 1912–1937 Cuban Championship as Copa Dewar occurred...

, (see diagram) which proceeded

81. Kc2 Ka1

82. Nc5 Ka2 (if 82... a2 then 83. Nb3#)

83. Nd3 (reaching the position in the first diagram above, with Black to move)

83... Ka1

84. Nc1

Black resigned here, but play would continue:

84... a2

85. Nb3# .

Unusual checkmate positions

There are also positions in which a king and a knight can checkmate a king and a bishop, knight, or rook; or a king and a bishop can checkmate a king with a bishop on the other color of squares or with a knight, but the checkmate cannot be forced if there is no other material on the board (see the diagrams for some examples). Nevertheless, it keeps these material combinations from being ruled a draw

Draw (chess)

because of "insufficient mating material" or "impossibility of checkmate" under the FIDE rules of chess

Rules of chess

.The U.S. Chess Federation rules are different. In a typical position with a minor piece versus a minor piece, a player would be able to claim a draw if he has a limited amount of time left .

History

In early Sanskrit chess (ca. 500-700) the king could be captured and this ended the game. The Persians (ca. 700-800) introduced the idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing check in modern terminology). 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 . Checkmate was thus the logical and only decisive way of ending a game (since if it was checkmate, any move would be illegal) .

Before about 1600 the game could also be won by capturing all of the opponent's pieces other than the king (annihilation or robado) (see bare king

Bare king

In chess and related games, a bare king is a situation in which one player has only the king left on the board, while that player's fifteen other pieces have been captured....

). In Medieval times players began to consider it nobler to win by checkmate, so annihilation became a half-win for a while, until it was abandoned .

Origin of the word

The term checkmate is an alteration or Hobson-Jobson

Hobson-Jobson

Hobson-Jobson is the short title of Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive, a historical dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and terms from Indian languages which came into use during the...

of the Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

phrase "Shāh Māt" which means, literally, "the King is helpless" (or "ambushed", "defeated", or "stumped", but not "dead"). It is a common misconception that it means "the King is dead", as chess reached Europe via the Islamic world, and Arabic māta مَاتَ means "died" or "is dead" , , , , .

Moghadam traced the etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

of the word mate. It comes from a Persian verb mandan, meaning "to remain", which is cognate with the Latin word manco. It means "remained" in the sense of "abandoned" and the formal translation is "surprised", in the military sense of "ambushed" (not in the sense of "astonished"). So the king is in mate when he is ambushed, at a loss, or abandoned to his fate .

The term "checkmate" also has origins in the term "check", which means temporarily stop, and which also is in the chessplaying context related to the term "chess", which derives from the French word "echecs", which is derived from the alternating black and white pattern of an eschequier, or counting table, a pattern which was duplicated in larger form in some countries on the floor of the exchequer, a central bank, and whence such related terms as "checkers" and "checkered" were brought about.

The term checkmate in modern parlance is a dead metaphor

Dead metaphor

A dead metaphor is a metaphor which has lost the original imagery of its meaning due to extensive, repetitive popular usage. Because dead metaphors have a conventional meaning that differs from the original, they can be understood without knowing their earlier connotation. Dead metaphors are...

for an irrefutable and strategic victory.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Examples

Two major pieces

Basic checkmates

King and queen

King and rook

King and two bishops

King, bishop and knight

Two knights

Three knights

Rare checkmate positions

Stamma's mate

Unusual checkmate positions

History

Origin of the word

See also

External links