From the Persian word “shah” – king, The Persian word in this sense, after passing through Arabic, probably Old Spanish, and then Old French, came into Middle English as check about seven hundred years ago. Chess itself comes from a plural form of the Old French word that gave us the word check.
A position where the king is under attack by opponent’s piece or pawn. The king cannot remain checked, so this situation should be resolved immediately by 1) moving the king of the square attacked, 2) capturing the piece to have checked, 3) blocking the lane of attack by another piece. If it turns out to be impossible to get out of the check, then this situation is known as checkmate.
A player may not castle to relieve a check. According to many codes of chess laws at the begin of the 20th century, it was mandatory to announce a check orally. Modern-day chess regulations do not keep this rule. Some old regulations also contained a clause requiring a declaration of a “check to the queen”, “gardez” (from the French verb “to safeguard”), or check-rook.
In rapid chess, the game is lost if the player inattentively overlooks a check and does not get out of it.
The following game between H. Rebickova and M. Voracova of 1995, ended with a record of 74 checks by the black Queen.
ECHESSPEDIA
Quotes of the Day
When I am in the USSR, I have the feeling that every tram conductor plays chess better than I do.
Hans Ree
We must finish once and for all with the neutrality of chess. We must condemn once and for all the formula “chess for the sake of chess”, like the formula “art for art’s sake”. We must organize shock brigades of chess-players, and begin immediate realization of a Five-Year Plan for chess.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Krylenko
There was a moment at the beginning when the machines were a positive, but lately we’ve being passing to the other extreme. Now it seems that a move isn’t good unless the machine says so.
Veselin Topalov 2016
If the FIDe elections were not decided by the votes of the delegates but by the world’s chess society as a whole, there would not even be a competition.
Anatoly Karpov NIC 2010
It is true, in chess so far that men and women cannot be on the same level from an economic situation, but there can always be a more reasonable way to combine the financial part and the players’ situation.
Hou Yifan 2016
