How To Kill The King In Chess

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  • It consists of four steps: Putting the opponent's king in a box by moving our queen a knight -move away, Decreasing the size of the box by 'dancing with the king,' 'Freezing the queen' after the king is in a corner,. Walking our king over to deliver checkmate!
  • There are three possible ways to remove the king from check: The king is moved to an adjacent non-threatened square. A king cannot castle to get out of check. A king can capture an. A piece is interposed between the king and the attacking piece to break the line of threat (not possible when the.
  • The Chess King’s Looks. As you can see, the King simply a figure with a cross on top, to represent its royalty. The King can humorously be criticized for being the most important piece on the board, but the least functioning, as we will learn with how the King moves in chess.

Learn Chess Step by Step Here: 60 Memorable Games Paperback. The short and technical answer to this question is a simple no, and you cannot. You win a chess game by trapping your opponent’s King, not by capturing it. When your opponent’s King has nowhere to escape an attack, the game ends right then and there. There is no time for you to capture the king.

Are you confused about whether a king can kill in chess or not? Then don’t worry, because in this article I’m going to explain case-by-case, when a king can kill a chess piece and when a king can’t kill a chess piece along with other related questions. Let’s start!

How To Kill The King In Chess

So, can a king kill in chess? Yes, a king can kill any attacking chess piece such as queen, knight, rook, bishop, or pawn, even in check. However, if the attacking chess piece is supported by another enemy piece, then the king can’t kill because that would put the king in check which is illegal.

Remember that one king can never check or attack another king directly. This is because as soon it tries to approach next to another king, it gets into check which is not allowed.

Hence one king can’t capture or kill another king. Read my detailed article about can a king kill a king in chess to know more.

Ahead I’m going to clarify all of your doubts along with the proper illustration, but before that let’s discuss how the king moves in chess (in brief).

How Does The King Move In Chess?

A king moves only one square in any direction provided that square is vacant and not controlled by another chess piece.

Here’s a video by Howcast that will help you to understand how the king moves in chess and all other related concepts.

Can The King Kill If In Check?

A king can kill if in check as long as doing that doesn’t put it in check again. Here’s an illustration that shows two cases of when a king can kill in check and when a king can’t kill in check.

Case – 1: When A King Can Kill In Check

Chess

As you can see in the image black king is in check and attacked by the white queen. So what would you do if you had the black chess piece?

Obviously, get your king out of check, right? Now there are three ways to get the king out of check.

  1. By moving the king into a safe square
  2. By placing any chess piece between the king and the attacking chess piece (here the white queen)
  3. By killing the attacking chess piece

Particularly, here we are discussing the third case, to kill the attacking chess piece. But is it possible? Before answering that, I want you to remember one rule from now onwards and that is:

One can’t leave one’s own king in check neither expose it to check

As per the World Chess Federation (FIDE) rules

So any move you make that goes against this rule will be considered illegal and will be not allowed to make.

Now, I ask you can the black king kill or capture the white queen? The answer is yes because there is no threat in doing that, right?

Let’s discuss another case.

Also Read: Can You Double Kill In Chess? (Explained)

Case – 2: When A King Can’t Kill In Check

(See the image that I showed you earlier and come back again) So as you can see in case – 2 also the black king is attacked by the white queen.

But one thing if you noticed is that this time white rook is supporting the white queen. So can the king kill in this case?

The answer is no. This is because as soon as the black king will capture the white queen it will get exposed to check by the white rook.

Read Related: Can A King Kill To Get Out Of Check? (Explained)

And as I told you earlier, you can’t make any move that puts your king into check. Hence the king can’t kill in check in this case.

What Happens If You Move Your King Into Check?

It is considered an illegal move to move one’s own king into check. In casual games, nothing happens and you can just take back your move. But in professional games, after making two illegal moves you lose provided the opponent has sufficient chess pieces to checkmate your king.

If the opponent cannot checkmate by any series of legal moves, then the game is drawn. As per the standard FIDE rules, after making the first illegal move the player’s opponent is allotted two minutes extra time. While for the second illegal move the player loses the game.

An illegal move is any move that doesn’t follow the standard rules of chess. You can read more about it in my article: Illegal Moves In Chess: Everything You Need Know (With Examples)

Can You Move Yourself Into Checkmate?

You can’t move into check or checkmate because that violates the standard chess rules. However, you can make a move that allows your opponent to check or checkmate you.

Whether you put your king in check or checkmate intentionally or accidentally, it is considered an illegal move.

Read More: What Happens If You Accidentally Put Yourself In Checkmate?

Conclusion

How

In short, you can remember like this: Any move that puts your king into check is not allowed. Recall this statement every time you make a move to prevent making mistakes.

So that’s it! Hope you found this post helpful. Now below I have shared the answers to some of the related frequently asked questions which you can read to clear your doubts. Till then Thanks, and Good Luck!

Wait! Do you want to play chess but don’t have a good chess set? Then check out my recommendations on the Top 7 Best Chess Sets For Beginners (With Buying Guide)

Related Questions:

Can king kill anyone in chess?

Yes, a king can kill anyone in chess as long as doing that doesn’t put the king in check. As per the standard rules, it is illegal to make a move that puts your king in check.

Can the king attack in check?

Yes, a king can attack in check but only if doing that helps the king to get out of check. Out of the three ways of getting the king out of check, one of them is to counter-attack the attacking chess piece.

Can the king defend himself in chess?

Yes, a king can defend himself from attack and there are three ways for doing it. First, moving the king to a safer square. Second, blocking the attack by putting a piece between the king and attacking chess piece and third is to counter-attack the enemy piece.

Can the king kill diagonally in chess?

Yes, a king can kill diagonally as well in any direction up to one adjacent square. However, if killing a piece puts the king in check, then it is not allowed.

Can a king kill a pawn in chess?

Yes, a king can kill a pawn in chess as long as doing that doesn’t put the king in check. As per the standard rules, it is illegal to make a move that puts your king in check.

Can king kill a queen in chess?

Yes, a king can kill a queen as long as that doesn’t put it in check. You can read my article Can A King Capture A Queen In Chess to know more.

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Author Profile

Hi! I'm Pritam and I'm a huge chess enthusiast! I know the actual problems that chess players face. I created this site to make chess easy to understand for newcomers, and also to help players of all levels of ability to improve their chess playing skills. Read more about me here.
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In this article, you will learn ways a chess game can end.

There are many ways to end a chess game.

Sometimes the result is clear. However, there are situations when some players have questions about the result or why the game suddenly finished.

To clarify these situations, here are eight typical ways to end a chess game.

Win/Lose:

Draw:

Win/Lose:

There are three main ways to win or lose a chess game: checkmate, resignation and timeout. Check out the games and videos below for examples.

Checkmate

One of the most common ways to end a chess game is by checkmate. This happens when one of the players is threatening the other king and it cannot move to any other squares, cannot be protected by another piece and the checking piece cannot be captured.

If all of these conditions are met, the attacking player wins via checkmate.

Can you find the way Black delivered checkmate in one move?

The checkmate above was really easy. However, in elite tournaments like the PRO Chess League, sometimes the checkmate appears in less obvious forms.

In the following Twitch clip you will see an amazing checkmate with two knights by Zhao Jun.

Drills: Practice Thematic Checkmates Lessons: Winning the Game

How To Protect The King In Chess

Resignation

While some games end by checkmate, there are many that don't get that far.

Sometimes one of the players believes that he or she will be checkmated soon and resigns instead of playing out the game. In the following game you will see that after White's move the checkmate is imminent, so the player with black pieces resigns.

Can you find the move that made Black resign?

However, pay attention! Sometimes we think we are losing when we are not. In the following game, the 2018 U.S. chess champion Sam Shankland was playing against the super-grandmaster Anish Giri in the 2019 Tata Steel chess masters tournament and he resigned in a drawn position!

Timeout

Timeout is a painful way to lose a chess game. It does not matter how much of an advantage you have on the board or whether you have checkmate in one move. If you run out of time, you automatically lose the game if your opponent has the minimum material required to force a checkmate. If your opponent does not have the minimum amount of material for checkmate and you run out of time, the game is a draw—even if you were winning.

How To Kill The King In Chess

Managing your time and using it carefully across the game is critical.

Below you can see an example from the Pro Chess League where Andrew Tang was able to win by timeout in a very complicated position.

Timeout can also happen by disconnection, when one player is no longer connected to the server. In this case, a timeout loss is assigned to the disconnected player. At Chess.com, we give the disconnected player a fair amount of time to reconnect, but not too much to make the opponent wait long for the game to finish.

Draw:

While most of the ways to win or lose a chess game above are clear, draws can be a little more complicated. For people who are just learning to play chess, understanding rules like stalemate or insufficient material can be difficult. The following explanations should make things more clear.

Stalemate

In the following example, White has one extra pawn. But when White tries to push it to the very end, it leaves the black king without any legal moves, and so the game is a draw by stalemate.

Article: What is Stalemate in Chess Definition + Examples

Insufficient material

There are cases where one player has more pieces than the opponent toward the end of the game. However, that is not always enough to win because some combinations of pieces cannot force checkmate.

The game is declared a draw whenever both sides do not have the 'sufficient material' to force a checkmate.

Insufficient material (no checkmates are possible or no checkmates can be forced):

  • King vs king

If both players have only the king, the draw will be automatically declared, as neither of them can win.

  • King + minor piece vs king

A king and a minor piece (bishop or knight) cannot win the game alone because there is no possible way to checkmate with just these pieces. The game is an automatic draw.

  • Lone king vs all the pieces

What happens if one of the players has all the pieces but the other player has just one king and the first player runs out of time? In this example, White should win—but ran out of time!

Since the player with the black pieces can not checkmate with just the king, the game is also declared drawn. This is very important to point out as running out of time will not always mean losing the game—sometimes it's a draw.

This is sometimes called 'timeout vs insufficient material.'

  • King + two knights vs king

With this combinations of pieces checkmate is possible, but it cannot be forced. The game is a draw.

  • King + minor piece vs king + minor piece

Checkmate with a king and a minor piece vs another king and a minor piece is possible as long as the two minor pieces aren't bishops of the same color. But the checkmate cannot be forced without help from the opponent. The game is drawn.

If you're wondering how a checkmate (with help from the opponent) is possible, see below. Since the checkmate cannot be forced, though, the game is a draw.

50 move-rule

The 50 move-rule allows either player to claim a draw if no capture has been made or no pawn has been moved in the last 50 moves.

The longest chess game ever played could not have happened today, as it would have been declared a draw much earlier. In earlier times, 100 moves were allowed without a pawn move or a capture.

Repetition

The threefold-repetition rule says that if a position arises three times in a game, either player can claim a draw during that position. This rule was created to avoid games repeating indefinitely because players were making the same moves again and again. In online play, this draw happens automatically on the third repetition.

Agreement

When both players decide they want to draw the game, there is a draw by agreement. Most of the time this is because they believe that neither player can obtain an advantage.

Can King Can Kill King In Chess

But draws by agreement can be controversial if they come quickly in a game when both players want a draw due to a tournament situation.

To offer a draw on Chess.com, press the draw button.

In the example below, Grischuk and Mamedyarov agreed to draw in just 16 moves.

Is The King Allowed To Kill In Chess

Some tournaments now implement the 40-move-rule, which avoids any draw offer before reaching move 40.

How To Beat A King In Chess

Do you have any questions about ways to end a chess game? Let us know in the comments below.

How To Kill The King In Chess Game

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