👋 Hi Chess Enthusiast

In Today’s Newsletter, we will learn about the difference between check and checkmate

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Check vs Checkmate

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I have noticed that a lot of beginners make the mistake of considering check as checkmate, and some even have the opinion that one should capture the opponent’s king to win a game of chess.

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Today, let me explain clearly the difference between check and checkmate with examples.

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Today’s newsletter might seem very simple to many folks, but guess what? There are many beginners who needs a bit of clarity on this. This newsletter is targeted towards them.

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Before we begin, if you are someone who is very passionate about learning chess and improving your chess skills, then hit subscribe if you haven’t already.

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Check

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When you attack your opponent king and your opponent can escape from that attack, then it is called a check.

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Here, the white king just moved his bishop to b5 from f1 to give a check to the black king on e8. However, now the black can escape from the check by blocking with his pawn or knight on c6 or by blocking with his queen, bishop, or knight on d7. Black can also escape from the check by moving his king to e7.

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So, when you attack your opponent's king and he is able to escape from that attack, it will be just a check.

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2. Checkmate

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In Checkmate, you will be attacking the king again, but this time the opponent king cannot escape; wherever they try to move, their king will get captured.

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Checkmate results in victory for you!

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Let us see an example and try to understand this

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Here, White moves his rook to d7 and attacks the black king on d8. As you can see in the below image, when the king tries to go to e8 or c8, the white knight is controlling it; when the king tries to go to e7 or c7, the rook is controlling it.

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When the king tries to capture the d7 rook, the bishop on h3 will capture the king.

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So, whatever the black king tries to do to escape, he is getting captured. So, this is called a checkmate.

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So, checkmate is a situation where your opponent's king is under attack and is not able to escape from the attack.

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Let me give you another example

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So, here, White plays queen to g7 and attacks the king. Now, if the king tries to escape to e8 or e6, the white bishop is controlling them; if the king tries to escape to f6, f8, g8, g6, the queen is controlling those squares; finally, the king can’t capture the g7 queen, as the white king is supporting the queen.

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So, queen moving to g7 results in a checkmate.

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Puzzle of the day

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Explore our curated Selection of free PDFs/E-Books to enhance your chess knowledge and skills

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From strategy guides to masterclass tutorials, there’s something for every chess enthusiast.

Check out our recommended reads below:

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Download and try these interesting puzzles and share your answers writing to [email protected]

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That concludes this edition of our newsletter. Keep practicing, keep learning, and keep pushing the boundaries of your chess skills.

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In the next newsletter on Monday, we will learn about a concept called pin.

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Author,

Ramalingam Karthik

Chess With Ramkar

 [email protected]