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Checkmate

Encyclopedia : C : CH : CHE : Checkmate

The white king has been checkmated; the game is over. The white king lying on his side symbolises this defeat, though strictly this 'tipping' of the king does not occur following checkmate; instead it is one of the possible ways to resign a game before checkmate occurs.
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The white king has been checkmated; the game is over. The white king lying on his side symbolises this defeat, though strictly this 'tipping' of the king does not occur following checkmate; instead it is one of the possible ways to resign a game before checkmate occurs.

:For other uses of the word, see Checkmate (disambiguation).
Checkmate (frequently shortened to mate) is a situation in chess (and in other boardgames of the chaturanga family) in which one player's king is under attack and there is no way to meet that threat; it is a check from which there is no escape. The king is never actually captured — the game ends as soon as the king is checkmated. A player who is checkmated loses the game. Delivering checkmate is the ultimate goal in chess (although not all games end in checkmate — most often a player resigns before checkmate is administered, or the game may end in a draw in several ways).

If a king is under attack but the threat can be met (by capturing the checking piece, moving the king to an unattacked square, or interposing a piece between the king and the checking piece (unless the checking piece is a knight), then the king is said to be in check. If a player is not in check but has no legal move (that is, no move that does not allow the king to be captured), the result of the game is stalemate.

Contents

Origin of the word

The term checkmate is an alteration or Hobson-Jobson of the Persian phrase "Shah Mat" which means, literally, "the King is ambushed" (or "helpless" or "defeated"). It does not literally mean "the King is dead", although that is a common misconception.http://www.goddesschess.com/chessays/shahmatjan.html

Moghadam traced the etymology of the word mate. It comes from a Persian word mandan, meaning "to remain", which stems from 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. (Davidson 1949:70-71)

Basic checkmates

Here are the common fundamental checkmates when one side has only his king and the other side has only the minimum material needed to force checkmate.

The checkmate with the queen is the most important, but it is also very easy to achieve. It often occurs after a pawn has queened. 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 is difficult and requires precision.

Two knights cannot force checkmate against a lone king. However, under some circumstances, two knights and a king can force checkmate against a king and pawn (or rarely 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. Three knights and a king can force checkmate against a lone king, and four knights can do so even without their king's participation. Those situations, which require one or more promoted knights, are almost never seen outside of chess problems.

Queen

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These diagrams show representatives of the basic checkmate positions with a queen, which can occur on any edge of the board. Naturally, the exact position can vary from the diagram. With white to move, checkmate can be forced in at most ten moves from any starting position. In the first position, the queen is directly in front of the opposing king.

In the second position, the kings are in opposition and the queen mates on the rank of the king.

See for a demonstration of how the king and queen versus king mate is achieved.

Rook

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This diagram shows the basic checkmate position with a rook, which can occur on any edge of the board. With white to move, checkmate can be forced in at most sixteen moves from any starting position.

The second diagram shows a slightly different position where the kings are not in opposition.

Again, see for a demonstration of how the king and rook versus king mate is achieved.

Two bishops

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Here are the two basic checkmate positions with two bishops (on opposite colors), which can occur in any corner. With white to move, checkmate can be forced in at most nineteen moves. The first is a checkmate in the corner. The second one is a checkmate in a side square next to the corner square.

Bishop and knight

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This checkmate is the most difficult 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 which the bishop controls.

Here are the two basic checkmate positions with a bishop and a knight, or the 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 white to move, checkmate can be forced in at most thirty-three moves from any starting position, except those in which the black king is initially forking the bishop and knight and it is not possible to defend both. However, the mating process requires accurate play, since a few errors could result in a draw either by the fifty move rule or stalemate.

Two knights

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It is impossible for the stronger player to force checkmate with two knights. In the diagram, if Black plays 1... Ka8? (see algebraic chess notation), 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 (Speelman, et. al. 1993:11).

In the diagram on the right, White can play 1. Nc6+ Ka8, but now if White plays 2. Nb5 threatening 3. Nc7#, Black is stalemated. It is sometimes possible to force checkmate with two knights against a pawn, because in some positions, having a pawn removes this stalemate defence (see Troitzky line).

Rare checkmate positions

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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. In the diagram showing Stamma's mate, White wins (Emms 2004:122):

White also wins if Black is to move first:
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There are also positions in which a king and knight or bishop can checkmate a king and bishop, but checkmate can't be forced (see the diagrams for some examples). Nevertheless, it keeps these material combinations from being ruled a draw because of "insufficient mating material" or "impossibility of checkmate".

Quick checkmates in the opening

The fastest possible checkmate from the initial position is in two moves. This occurs in fool's mate when White moves the king's bishop's pawn one or two squares and king's knight's pawn two squares, and Black's queen is moved to the king's rook's file (1.f3 e5 2.g4 Qh4# in algebraic notation). The fastest possible checkmate by White is in three moves, administered either by the queen or bishop on h5 or g6, e.g. 1.e4 g5 2.d4 f6 3.Qh5# or 1.e3 f6 2.Bd3 h6 3.Bg6#, the fastest possible mate by a bishop) or by the queen on e5 (1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Ke7 3.Qxe5#). The fastest possible mate by a knight is on Black's third move, e.g. 1.e4 Nc6 2.c3 Ne5 3.Ne2 Nd3#. The fastest possible mate by a rook is on White's fifth move, e.g. 1.h4 g5 2.hxg5 Bh6 3.Rxh6 Nf6 4.Rxh7 Ne4 5.Rxh8# or 1.a4 b6 2.a5 Bb7 3.a6 Qc8 4.axb7 and 5.bxc8(R)# (this, or 5.bxc8(Q), is also the fastest possible mate by a promoted pawn).

Some common or notable mating patterns have names of their own. Apart from the aforementioned fool's mate, these include scholar's mate, smothered mate, the back rank mate, Boden's mate, epaulette mate, and Légal's mate (see below).

Some opening traps involve an early checkmate. These include:

See also

Notes

References

 

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