checkmating

Checkmating, in chess, is a situation in which a player's king is in check and has no legal move to escape the attack. It ends the game immediately with a win for the attacking side. This differs from a simple check, which merely threatens capture and can often be countered, and from a stalemate, where the player to move has no legal moves but is not in check, resulting in a draw.

A mate occurs when the attacker not only places the king in check but also controls all of its escape squares or restricts them so that escape is impossible by any legal move. The defense may try to capture the attacking piece, move the king to safety, or interpose a piece along the line of attack; however, in a checkmate, none of these options are possible.

Checkmate can arise from a single decisive move or through a sequence of forcing moves that culminate in the king’s capture or restriction. Many common mating patterns involve coordinating major pieces with the king’s limited mobility, such as back-rank mates, ladder mates, or smothered mates.

In standard play, a game ends immediately when checkmate occurs. Players may resign earlier if they believe checkmate is inevitable, and other draw conditions (time forfeiture, stalemate, threefold repetition, or insufficient material) may also apply in related situations. Checkmate is the ultimate objective in chess, representing the decisive conclusion of a game.