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millsy
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As we discussed earlier on, the king is the most important piece in a player's army. It must be guarded at all costs. If a king is being threatened by any of the opponent's pieces, that threatened king is said to be in 'Check', and MUST be taken out of check on that turn. If the king cannot be taken out of check, it is called 'Checkmate' and that player loses the game.
White king in check
In the diagram above, it's white's turn to play. White would just love to gobble up that black queen on "a6" using the knight on "c5" or rook on "a1". But wait look... Black's bishop on "b7" is threatening white's king on "g2".
White's king is in check. It MUST be taken out of check on this move. Capturing the queen will have to be put on hold for a while.
There's a few way to get a king out of check:
White has all these options in this example. The king could be placed on "g3", "h3" or "g1". These are all safe squares. Note the king cannot go on "f1" because black's queen is threatening that square. A king cannot put itself into check!!
The bishop's attack can be blocked by moving the pawn on "f2" to "f3", bishop "d1" to "f3" or the knight on "c5" to "e4".
Lastly black's bishop can be captured by move the knight on "c5" to "b7".
It also important to remember that no 'points' are won by checking your opponent. Checking causes a disadvantage to your opponent. Because the check must be removed immediately, the player probably would like to be doing some other move instead of getting their king to safety.
A king can be checked by more that one opponent piece, this would be harder to get out of. Take a look at this example above. Black has just played "e6" to "f4". It has put white's king in check using this knight but also in check using the bishop as well. This is called discovered check. Discovered checks can be extremely powerful, as the piece moved can make a threat independently of the piece it reveals.
White has only one way of moving the king to safety in this example, which is moving the king to "h2". If the king was unable to remove itself from check, then that king has been checkmated, which means that player has lost the game. We'll look at that next..
White king checkmated
Same setup as before, with black's knight just moved from"e6" to "f4". But this time we have added a black rook on square "a2". White king has been checkmated!! It can't move to the safety of "h2" square, because the 2nd rank is controlled by that new rook. It cannot move from it's position, block the attacking pieces or capture the attacking pieces. Black has won the game, white has lost. The king is never actually captured - the game ends as soon as the king is checkmated.
White king stalemated
Now something very nasty. Many beginners fall foul of it. It's called 'Stalemate' and ends the game in a draw. It can catch players unaware. One minute they think they are winning, next smarting because they have unwittingly stalemated their opponent. Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move has no legal moves but is not in check.
Let's take a look at the above diagram. Black is feeling very smug. His/her army is much larger and powerful than white's. A simple pushover. Well, yes, true but black has just made a very foolish mistake. Black's last move was to move the bishop from "d7" to it's new position on "g4". It is now white's turn to play. But oh dear, white cannot move! None of the pawns can move because they are block from doing so. And also the king cannot move without moving into check, which is illegal. A player cannot 'pass' in chess, so the game is called stalemate and drawn. Black is now not feeling so smug, but would of been easy to avoid the stalemate. A lesson learnt.
Ok, we've learnt quite a bit so far. Let's have a look how a real game might start for the first few moves...
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