What Is Checkmate in Chess? Explained for Kids

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Checkmate is how you win a game of chess. It happens when a king is in check and there is no legal way to get out of it. The game ends at that moment; the king is never actually captured.

How to tell if it is checkmate

When a king is in check, go through the three escapes:

1. Can the king move to a safe square?
2. Can a piece block the attack?
3. Can the attacking piece be captured?

If the answer to all three is no, it is checkmate. If even one of them works, it is only check, and the game goes on.

Famous checkmate patterns

• Queen and king: the queen stands right next to the enemy king, protected by her own king, as in the diagram above.
• Back-rank mate: a rook or queen checks a king along the back row, and the king's own pawns block the escape.
• Two rooks: one rook cuts off a row, the other gives check on the next one, and together they push the king to the edge of the board.

Checkmate or stalemate?

If the king is not in check but the player has no legal move at all, that is not checkmate: it is stalemate, and the game is a draw. Many children lose a winning game this way, so it is worth learning the difference early.

For parents

Practise "mate in one" puzzles: positions where one move gives checkmate. They train children to check all three escapes, again and again, and they are very satisfying to solve. The ChessWorld app has mate-in-one puzzles among its 2,000+ puzzles.