Guide · 2026-11-03 · 6 min read

Check, checkmate and stalemate: the rules every child must know (and all the ways a game is drawn)

The three ways out of check, what makes a position checkmate, why stalemate is a draw and not a win, and the other draws: repetition, the fifty-move rule and not enough pieces to mate.

A chess game is not won by taking the most pieces. It is won by checkmate: attacking the king so that he cannot escape. Children who understand exactly what check, checkmate and stalemate mean stop losing won games, and stop "winning" games that are really draws. Here are the rules, as the FIDE Laws of Chess state them, in plain words.

Check

A king is in check when an enemy piece attacks the square he stands on. In casual games people say "check" aloud; in tournaments you do not have to, and many arbiters prefer silence. What matters is the rule: a player in check must get out of check on the very next move. Any move that leaves your own king in check is illegal, and so is a move that puts your own king into check.

The three ways out of check

Coaches teach it as three questions, in this order:

• Can I capture the piece that gives check?
• Can I block the check by putting a piece in between? (Not possible against a knight or a pawn, or a piece right next to the king.)
• Can I move the king to a safe square?

Look at this position. The black rook on e8 checks the white king along the e-file. White can capture it with Rxe8, put the bishop in the way with Be3, or step to d1 or f1 (e2 and d2 are not available: e2 is still on the rook’s file and d2 is the bishop’s square). Here the capture is best by far: after 1.Rxe8 the black king on g8 is in check, his own pawns on f7, g7 and h7 block every escape, and nothing can take the rook. That is checkmate.

Make a habit of finding all three kinds of answer before choosing. Beginners usually see only the king move, and often it is the worst one.

Checkmate

Checkmate means the king is in check and there is no legal move that gets him out: he cannot capture the attacker, nothing can block, and every square around him is attacked or occupied by his own pieces. The game ends at that moment and the side that gave checkmate wins. The king is never actually captured.

Two things are worth remembering. First, the checkmating move does not need to be made by a strong piece: a pawn or a knight can mate. Second, a checkmate ends the game even if the player who gives it has less material, or has just run out of time on the next move: a game ends at the first decisive event. For the six patterns that most games end with, read 6 checkmate patterns every kid must know.

Stalemate: the trap for the winning side

Stalemate is when the player to move is not in check but has no legal move at all. It is a draw, the same result as if the game had been agreed drawn: half a point each. Stalemate usually happens in exactly one way: the side with a big extra piece, often a queen, takes away the last square of a lonely king without giving check.

Here White is winning easily. But the natural-looking 1.Qb6?? takes away a7 and leaves this:

The cure is a habit: when the enemy king has only one or two squares left, before every move ask "after this move, does he still have a move?" With a king and queen against a king, use the queen to shrink the box, keeping a knight’s jump away from the king, and walk your own king up to help. The mate itself only comes when your king stands close. Our stalemate lesson shows the danger squares on a board.

The other ways a game is drawn

Stalemate is one of several draws in the Laws of Chess. Parents at junior tournaments should know them all, because children sometimes play on in positions that are already drawn, or agree a draw in a winning one.

• Draw by agreement: one player offers a draw after making a move and before pressing the clock, and the other accepts. Some events forbid early draw offers; the brochure says so.
• Threefold repetition: if the same position (same player to move, same pieces on the same squares, same castling and en passant rights) appears three times, the player to move may claim a draw. It does not have to be three repetitions in a row. In a tournament the claim is made to the arbiter, not to the opponent. If the same position appears five times, the game is drawn automatically.
• The fifty-move rule: if the last fifty moves by each player had no capture and no pawn move, the player to move may claim a draw. After seventy-five such moves by each player, the game is drawn automatically, unless the last move was checkmate.
• Not enough pieces to checkmate: if no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate, the game is drawn at once. The common cases are king against king, king and bishop against king, and king and knight against king. (King and two knights against a king cannot force mate, but a mate is still possible if the defender blunders, so that game goes on.)
• Time: if a player’s flag falls but the opponent has no possible way to checkmate with any series of legal moves, the game is a draw, not a loss.

A child’s checklist when the game is nearly won

• Is the enemy king in check after my move? If not, does he still have a legal move? (Stalemate check.)
• Have I been in this exact position twice already? (Repetition.)
• Am I pushing pawns and making captures, or just moving pieces around? (Fifty moves.)
• Do I have enough left to give mate? A queen or a rook is always enough with the king; a single bishop or knight is not.

Practise it

• Check, out of check and checkmate in our free Learn chess course, then stalemate.
• Mate-in-one puzzles: mate in 1 by theme. Ten a day for a week makes the patterns automatic.
• Read next: how the pieces move and 6 checkmate patterns.

Questions children and parents ask

Read next

• 6 checkmate patterns every kid must know (with positions to try)
• Forks, pins and skewers explained: the three tactics that win most games