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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

The black king has been checkmated; the game is over.

Checkmate (frequently shortened to mate) is a situation in chess (and in other boardgames of the chaturanga family) in which one player's king is threatened with capture (in check) and there is no way to meet that threat. Delivering checkmate is the ultimate goal in chess: a player who is checkmated loses the game (the king is never actually captured – the game ends as soon as the king is checkmated). In practice, most players resign an inevitably lost game before being checkmated.

If a king is under attack but the threat can be met, then the king is said to be in check, but is not in checkmate. If a player is not in check but has no legal move (that is, no valid move that would not put the king in check), the result of the game is stalemate, and the game ends in a draw (but in other variants, it is a loss for the stalemated player). (See Rules of chess.)

Origin of the word

The term checkmate is an alteration or Hobson-Jobson of the Persian phrase "Shāh Māt" which means, literally, "the King is ambushed" (or "helpless" or "defeated"). It does not literally mean "the King is dead", although that is a common misconception, as chess reached Europe via the Islamic world, and Arabic māta مَاتَ means "died", "is dead".¹

Moghadam traced the etymology of the word mate. It comes from a Persian verb mandan, meaning "to remain", which is cognate with the Latin word manco. It means "remained" in the sense of "abandoned" and the formal translation is "surprised", in the military sense of "ambushed" (not in the sense of "astonished"). So the king is in mate when he is ambushed, at a loss, or abandoned to his fate (Davidson 1981:70-71).

The term checkmate has come to mean in modern parlance an irrefutable and strategic victory.

Examples

Fool's mate

White is in checkmate.

Byrne-Fischer, 1956

After 41... Rc2, checkmate.

Checkmate with rook.

Black has been checkmated.

A checkmate may occur in only two moves with all of the pieces still on the board (as in Fool's mate, in the opening phase of the game), in a middlegame position (as in the Game of the Century between Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer), or after many moves with as few as three pieces in an endgame position.

Two major pieces

White checkmates easily.

Checkmate with queen and rook.

Two major pieces (queens or rooks) can easily force checkmate on the edge of the board, even without the help of their king. The process is to put the two pieces on adjacent ranks or files and gradually force the king to the side of the board, where one piece keeps the king on the edge of the board while the other delivers checkmate (Pandolfini 1988:18-20).

In the first diagram, White checkmates easily by forcing the black king to the edge a rank at a time or a file at a time:

1. Qg5+ Kd4

2. Rf4+ Ke3

3. Qg3+ Ke2

4. Rf2+ Ke1

5. Qg1# (second diagram) (Silman 2007:7-8).

The checkmate with two queens or with two rooks is similar (Pandolfini 1988:20).

Mid-board checkmate with queen, rook, and king.

Mid-board checkmate with two queens.