checkmate
part of speech
noun (checkmate); verb (checkmate, checkmates, checkmated, checkmating); exclamation (Checkmate!)
meaning for a pupil
1) In chess, checkmate is when a king is attacked and cannot escape, so the game ends and that player loses. tree →
2) To checkmate someone is to win a chess game by trapping their king. tree →
3) Checkmate can mean a situation where someone is completely beaten or stuck. tree →
sense in the lessons
In chess club and games at home, a player says «Checkmate!» when they win. «Check» means the king is attacked but can still escape; «checkmate» means it cannot. In stories it can mean a final defeat in any contest or plan. Phrases: «in checkmate», «say checkmate», «checkmate in two moves».
examples
- She moved her queen and said, «Checkmate!» tree →
- My king was in check, but not in checkmate. tree →
- Can you find checkmate in two moves? tree →
- He checkmated me with just a rook and a king. tree →
- The game ended in checkmate after twenty moves. tree →
- Grandpa taught me how to checkmate with two rooks. tree →
- The detective's clever plan was checkmate for the thief. tree →
- It is not checkmate if the king can move to a safe square. tree →
note
Written as one word. «Check» ≠ «checkmate»: in check you must get out of danger; checkmate ends the game. Stalemate is different: the player cannot move but is not in check, and the game is a draw. In UK English «check» in chess is still spelt «check», not «cheque».
In the corpora
- In chess the aim is checkmate, trapping the king, not capturing everything.
- In chess, learn how each piece moves; the aim is checkmate, not capturing everything.
- In chess the aim is checkmate, trapping the king, not capturing as many pieces as possible.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «checkmate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.