Check and checkmate

Try it on the board

Check

A king under attack is in check (王手, ote). Check must be answered at once, and there are only three answers: the king moves, the attacking piece is captured, or something blocks the line.

You do not have to announce check, and there is no such thing as accidental check: you simply cannot make a move that leaves your own king attacked.

Checkmate

If there is no legal answer to the check, it is checkmate (詰み, tsumi) and the game is over. Mate arrives faster in shogi than in chess, because the attacker can drop fresh pieces next to the king at any moment.

In practice hardly any game is actually mated: the player who is lost resigns. Waiting for mate is considered bad manners among strong players.

Seeing a mate

The count is always the same: look at the king's escape squares, look at who defends the square the check comes from, and look at whether anything can block. If all three answers are "nobody", it is mate.

Mating problems (tsumeshogi) are the standard training for this, and the one-move ones, like this lesson's, are where it starts. A check that is not mate usually just loses the piece that gave it.