|
In games such as chess, shogi, and xiangqi, a check is an immediate threat to capture the king (or general in xiangqi). A king so threatened is said to be in check. In friendly games, it is customary for a player checking the opposing king to warn the opponent by saying "check". In the following move, the player whose king is in check must get his king out of check. Either the threat must be stopped (by interposing a piece between the threatening piece and the king, or capturing the threatening piece) or the king must be moved to a space where it is no longer in check. In chess, if the king is in check and there is no allowable move which gets the king out of check, the king is said to be checkmated and the game is over. The player whose king is checkmated loses and the opposing player, who checkmates the king, wins the game. In this usage, the words "check" and "chess" come via Arabic from Persian sh&
Check in the game of chess For a king to be checked (placed in check) in a chess game, the opponent makes a checking move so that one (or more) of his pieces attacks the king to be checked. However, it is against the rules for a player to make a move which puts his/her own king in check. The checking piece is the one that is attacking the opposing king, which is often, but not necessarily always, the same piece that was moved in the checking move. A checking move may or may not involve a capture of one of the other player's pieces. In algebraic chess notation, a checking move is noted like any other move, except that a + is written after the move. In friendly games, the checking player customarily says "check" when making a checking move. Less commonly (and essentially obsolete), the warning garde can be said when a player directly attacks the opponent's queen in a similar way. The same move can be both check and garde simultaneously. A king cannot directly check the opposing king himself, since this would place the first king in check. However, a king can still make a checking move by exposing one of his other pieces so that it is attacking the other king. Accordingly, the two opposing kings can never be placed on squares next to each other. Any other type of piece may be able to check the opposing king. Types of checks A simple and very common type of check is when a piece moves to directly attack the opposing king only by itself. Sometimes such a check is part of a chess tactic such as a fork, a skewer, or a discovered 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: Getting out of check There may be up to three possible ways to get a king out of a single check on the following move: If a king is placed in double check, the king must get out 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 out of check. The king may, however, capture one of the checking pieces in the process, if that piece is adjacent to the king and not protected by another piece. If none of these possibilities can get the king out of check, then it is checkmated and the game is won/lost. Checking in tactics and strategy Checking an opponent in a game of chess does not score any points and sometimes provides no benefit to the checking player. A check useless to the checking player may even provide the checked opponent with a tempo (move opportunity) to move his king into a safer position. However, there are many times 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 in combinations with many other tactics or simply to force an opponent into a position where the opposing king can be checkmated, otherwise taken advantage of, or is otherwise worse for the opponent. Some attacks involves numerous checks to force an opponent into a losing position, especially when the king is exposed. An unexpected check in a forced combination or an overlooked cross-check in a planned series of checks may serve as sort of a zwischenzug, foiling the plan. Some uses of checking: | ||||||||
|
--> | |||||||||
 |
|
| |