Definition & Meaning of "checkmate"in English

Checkmate

NOUN

a chess move that makes the opponent's king unable to escape, which means that opponent has lost

Grammatical Information

Animacy status

Abstract

Composition

Compound

Countable

Plural form

checkmates

What is "checkmate"?

Checkmate is a situation in chess where a player's king is under direct threat of being captured by an opponent's piece and there is no way to move the king to a safe square, block the attack, or capture the attacking piece. When a king is checkmated, the game ends, and the player whose king has been checkmated loses the game. The goal of chess is to checkmate the opponent’s king while keeping one's own king safe.

complete victory

to checkmate

VERB

place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game