Three-check

How Three-check is played

Three-check is chess with one more way to win: give check three times.

Three checks

Every check you give counts, whether the opponent answers it or not. The third one wins the game at once. A check by two pieces at once counts as one. Your bar shows the checks you have given.

Winning and draws

Checkmate wins too, before the third check. Otherwise the game ends as chess does: stalemate, the same position three times, fifty moves without a capture or a pawn move, and too little material to check are draws.

The story

Probably the Soviet Union · the 20th century to today

When and where

Nobody knows where three-check began. David Pritchard, in his Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (1994), suspected the Soviet Union, and wrote that Anatoly Karpov had been “invincible” at it in his youth.

How it changed

The rule is simple: whoever gives check three times wins. A check by two pieces at once counts as one, and a checkmate still wins.

Today

Chess.com and Lichess play it, and Lichess holds a yearly three-check world championship; grandmasters such as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave have played it. This app plays Lichess’s rules.

Did you know?

Since the game ends before any mate, players give up pieces for checks: an early sacrifice on f7 can bring the second and the third check within a few moves.

Sources: Wikipedia · D. B. Pritchard, The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007) · Lichess

More games

Chess and variants

• Chess · Classic chess or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank, against a bot.
• Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
• Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
• Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
• Crazyhouse · Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
• King of the Hill · Chess where a king that reaches the centre wins at once.
• Racing Kings · No pawns, no checks: the first king on the far rank wins.
• Horde · 36 white pawns storm a full black army.
• Duck chess · After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
• Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
• Kriegspiel · Only your own pieces in sight; an umpire judges every move.
• Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.

The chess family

• Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
• Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
• Medieval chess · Europe’s chess before 1475: the ferz and the king may leap on their first move.
• Courier chess · Medieval Germany’s chess on a 12 × 8 board, with the courier, the man and the schleich.
• Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
• Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
• Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
• Kar Ouk · Ouk Chatrang where the first check wins: guard your king.
• Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
• Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
• Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.
• Minishogi · Shogi on a 5 × 5 board: six pieces a side, short and sharp games.

More players

• Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
• Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
• Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
• Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
• Verney’s four-handed chess · Verney’s game of 1881: two against two, mate both enemy kings.
• Bughouse · Two boards, two teams: what you capture goes to your partner's hand.
• Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.