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Perpetual check
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Perpetual check
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player plays an unending series of checks from which the other player cannot escape. This typically arises when the player who is checking feels their position in the game is inferior, they cannot deliver checkmate, and wish to force a draw.
A draw by perpetual check is no longer one of the rules of chess, but will eventually allow a draw claim by either threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule. Players usually agree to a draw long before that.
Perpetual check can also occur in other forms of chess, although the rules relating to it might differ. For example, giving perpetual check is not allowed in shogi and xiangqi, where doing so leads to an automatic loss for the giver.
In this diagram, Black is ahead a rook, a bishop, and a pawn, which would normally be a decisive material advantage. But White, to move, can draw by perpetual check:
The same position will soon repeat for the third time and White can claim a draw by threefold repetition; or the players will agree to a draw.
In the diagram, from Wolfgang Unzicker–Yuri Averbakh, Stockholm Interzonal 1952, Black (on move) would soon be forced to give up one of his rooks for White's c-pawn (to prevent it from promoting or to capture the promoted queen after promotion). He can, however, exploit the weakness of White's kingside pawn structure with
Threatening 29...Qh2#. If 29.hxg4 then 29...Qf2+, salvaging a draw by threefold repetition with checks by moving the queen alternatively to f2 and h4.
In a classic game Carl Hamppe–Philipp Meitner, Vienna 1872, following a series of sacrifices Black forced the game to the position in the diagram, where he drew by a perpetual check:
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Perpetual check
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player plays an unending series of checks from which the other player cannot escape. This typically arises when the player who is checking feels their position in the game is inferior, they cannot deliver checkmate, and wish to force a draw.
A draw by perpetual check is no longer one of the rules of chess, but will eventually allow a draw claim by either threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule. Players usually agree to a draw long before that.
Perpetual check can also occur in other forms of chess, although the rules relating to it might differ. For example, giving perpetual check is not allowed in shogi and xiangqi, where doing so leads to an automatic loss for the giver.
In this diagram, Black is ahead a rook, a bishop, and a pawn, which would normally be a decisive material advantage. But White, to move, can draw by perpetual check:
The same position will soon repeat for the third time and White can claim a draw by threefold repetition; or the players will agree to a draw.
In the diagram, from Wolfgang Unzicker–Yuri Averbakh, Stockholm Interzonal 1952, Black (on move) would soon be forced to give up one of his rooks for White's c-pawn (to prevent it from promoting or to capture the promoted queen after promotion). He can, however, exploit the weakness of White's kingside pawn structure with
Threatening 29...Qh2#. If 29.hxg4 then 29...Qf2+, salvaging a draw by threefold repetition with checks by moving the queen alternatively to f2 and h4.
In a classic game Carl Hamppe–Philipp Meitner, Vienna 1872, following a series of sacrifices Black forced the game to the position in the diagram, where he drew by a perpetual check: