Lesson 6: Check and Checkmate
When a piece positions itself in a way where it can capture the opponent’s king in the next turn, it’s called a check. In Japanese it is called Oute (??), which means “King’s Move.” When a king is put in check, it must remove the threat of capture by moving away, blocking the attacker, or capturing the attacking piece.
In this diagram, sente’s Rook has put gote’s King into check. Gote has three ways to remove the check. Gote can move the King away from the Rook’s attack to 61, 41, or 61; he can block the Rook by moving his Gold to 52; or he can capture the Rook by moving his Gold to 53.
Checkmate happens when a King cannot avoid being captured in the next turn. ?The game ends after checkmate.
Gote’s King has been checkmated. There is nothing he can do to to escape capture. Moving away will simply result in capture by the Gold, and capturing the Gold will result in recapture by the Pawn. Black has won.
It is extremely rare, but in this situation, assuming gote has no pieces in hand, he has been stalemated, and he has lost. Although not in check, because he has no legal moves (similar to a checkmate), he has lost. ?Stalemate is not a draw condition in shogi.
