Checkmate
Check means the king is attacked. Checkmate means it is attacked and there is nothing at all to be done about it — and the game stops right there.
The three escapes
When a king is in check, the player must do one of exactly three things:
- Move the king to a square that is not attacked.
- Capture the piece that is giving check.
- Block — put another piece in the way. This never works against a knight, because knights jump.
Checkmate is simply the position where all three are impossible. Teaching the three escapes first, and checkmate second, is much easier than the other way round: a child who can list the escapes can work out for themselves whether a position is mate.
Start with the simplest mates
Rook and kingthe one to learn first
Four-move checkmateand how to stop it
Stalemate vs checkmatethe difference
The king is never captured
Worth saying plainly to a child, because it is genuinely odd: the king never comes off the board. The game ends the moment escape becomes impossible, one move before the capture would happen.
Practise mate in one
- Eight mate-in-one puzzles, then real games against four opponents
- Endgame drills include the rook-and-king mate step by step
- No timers and no lives — a wrong move costs nothing