The term checkmate is, according to the Barnhart Etymological Dictionary, an alteration of the Persian phrase "shāh … See more

In early Sanskrit chess (c. 500–700), the king could be captured and this ended the game. The Persians (c. 700–800) introduced the idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing check in modern terminology… See more

Two major pieces (queens or rooks) can easily force checkmate on the edge of the board using a technique known as the ladder checkmate. The process is to put the two pieces on adjacent ranks or files and force the ki… See more

There are four fundamental checkmates when one side has only their king and the other side has only the minimum material needed to force checkmate, i.e. (1) one queen, (2) one rook, (3) two bishops on opposite-co… See more

A back-rank checkmate is a checkmate delivered by a rook or queen along a back rank (that is, the row on which the pieces [not pawns] stand at the start of the game) in which the mated king is unable to move up the boar… See more