Chess lessons › Good chess habits
Fighting on in a worse position
Look for perpetual check and stalemate, set problems, and make your opponent prove the win.
The idea
When you are worse, make them prove the win: look for perpetual check.
- Black is a rook up, so White must look for a way to save the game.
- The queen checks from here and drives the king back.
- Then it checks from here, the king goes back, and the checks never end.
In a game: When you are losing, look at every check you have, and ask whether your king has any move left.
How the lesson begins
When you are worse, do not give up. Make your opponent prove the win. Set problems, keep pieces on the board, and look for the two great saving ideas: perpetual check and stalemate.
Perpetual check means checking the king again and again so that it can never escape. The same position keeps coming back, and a game in which a position comes up three times can be drawn.
Here Black is a rook up. But look at the black king, and at the checks White has.
Find the move
White to move. Find the checks that save the game.
A hint
Start with a check on the h-file.
Show the answer
1. Qh5+ Kg8 2. Qe8+ Kh7 3. Qh5+
Qh5+ drives the king to g8, Qe8+ sends it back to h7, and Qh5+ comes again. The king cannot escape the checks, so the game is a draw. Being a rook down does not matter when the enemy king has nowhere to hide.