Check (board game)

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 shāh = "king".

Related Topics:
Chess - Shogi - Xiangqi - Checkmate

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