Checkmate

This article is about the position in chess. For a list of checkmates, see Checkmate pattern. For other uses, see Checkmate (disambiguation).
Black is checkmated and loses the game.

Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with capture) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game.

In chess, the king is never actually captured—the player loses as soon as the player's king is checkmated. In formal games, it is usually considered good etiquette to resign an inevitably lost game before being checkmated.[1][2]

If a player is not in check but has no legal moves, then it is stalemate, and the game immediately ends in a draw. A checkmating move is recorded in algebraic notation using the hash symbol "#", for example: 34.Qg3#.

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
  1. ^ Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 336
  2. ^ Burgess 2009, p. 526