How To Win Chess When There’s Only King Left?

The king, as you may know, is the most important piece on a chessboard. Don’t be fooled by its restricted movement range because that is the one thing that may lead you to lose it, and losing the king means suffering a defeat in chess.

Yes, other pieces might have much higher mobility than the one-square-in-any-direction range of the king and are more frequently used to attack and capture the opponent’s pieces. However, that doesn’t necessarily make them as special as the king.

Is It Possible To Win Chess With Only The King Left

You may even lose all your pieces except the king and still win a match. Yes, it is possible to win even if all you have left on the board is your king.

That is because the game can only end in a win if the opponent’s king is captured or killed, and there are situations in which the match may not necessarily end with a win.

If you’ve played enough chess or studied it somewhat, you may have heard of stalemates. For those who are not so acquainted with chess lingo, a stalemate is a situation in which a player, who is not in check, cannot move the king without putting it in a threatened position.

That is because one of the most important rules of chess says the king, due to its importance, can never be deliberately put in check. So, a stalemate ends the game with a draw, which is sometimes welcomed or even provoked by a player who is facing imminent defeat.

Alternatively, although much less frequent and, for that matter, understandable, a player can win a chess match with only a king on the board if the opponent forfeits the match.

How To Win Chess When There’s Only King Left?

Think about it: who in the world would give up a match when your opponent only has the king on the board?

Well, to answer the question, the faster modalities of chess (bullet, rapid, and blitz) have a great deal to do with time management, so it can happen more often that a player wins with only a king on his side of the board.

But that is because the other player’s clock runs out and that constitutes a defeat.

In official matches and tournaments, due to the longer amount of time, players have to make their moves, it is extremely less likely that the fast chess situation will repeat.

What is much more common to happen in these situations is a checkmate or a draw. Winning with only the king is highly unusual since the player that is facing this situation is in an insanely vulnerable position.

However, skilled players have been seen to bring home the one point for the draw by causing a stalemate, which is more profitable than the zero points they would get in a tournament if they suffered a checkmate.

So, if you find yourself with only your king on the board, you might as well give your best shot at a stalemate!