The ABCs of Saving Your King
There are 3 ways out of check, have you considered what's best for your position?
Your king is in check, now what?
We’ve all been there. You’re playing your game, executing your plan, everything is going great, and suddenly , wham! you’re in check. What should you do?
A - Avoid
The most obvious way out, is to simply move your king to a safe square. This is what occurs to most players naturally. You can’t leave your king in check so your hand almost automatically moves to your king. But wait! There are several drawbacks to moving your king that you should be aware of.
You can no longer castle.
This is most important in the early game. If you move your king, you can no longer legally castle; and the inability to castle may leave you in a situation where it becomes impossible to win, such as the one I showed in my game against my friend Jeremy illustrating how to determine Who's Winning; spoiler alert: It wasn’t me.
Your king may have an important job. Moving the king out of check may leave another piece undefended.
B - Block
Moving another piece in front of your king, blocking line of sight from an attacker is another option for making your king safe. This avoids both drawbacks of moving your king, and is especially strong in cases where the blocking piece attacks back!
But it isn’t always better to block. There are drawbacks from this method as well. The primary drawback is that you are essentially pinning one of your own pieces. After blocking, you can no longer move that piece away as it would put your king back in check!
Another drawback is a situation like the first one shown at the top, moving a piece to counter attack creates a new weakness for your opponent to exploit!
C - Capture
Despite being last in the order, this is the one I tell people to check first! Often your opponent will see that they can attack your king, and will not pause to determine whether it is safe for them to do so! If you can capture the piece that is attacking your king, you almost always should do just that!
Many of you will be familiar with a situation like the one pictured above. White knows the 4 move checkmate, often called the “Scholar’s mate” and is so excited to play it that they recklessly put their queen on f7 where black simply captures it with the knight on h6.
So which should you chose?
There’s no answer that fits all situations; and it’s important to avoid decision paralysis where you let your clock run down because of your inability to decide. My advice is to have the process of the ABCs stuck in your mind. Make sure you consider all three possibilities before you chose one. This choice is often a crucial turning point in a game, and is a great place to slow down and ensure you've considered your ABCs.
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