Can a king checkmate with a king?

Answer 1

No. It is logically impossible to checkmate the opposing king with a pinned piece. Checkmate can occur only after a player moves one of his pieces to put the opposing king in check. Since the "pinned piece" is pinned and cannot move, it is incapable of checkmating the other king.

In the case of discovered check it is possible for a pinned piece to checkmate.

It is possible nevertheless to mate with a direct check using a piece that becomes pinned as a result of the move.

Here is a position, with white to move:

k7/7R/K3b3/1Q6/8/8/8/8

(for those who do not understand this antiquated notation, white has Ka6, Rh7, Qb5, and black has Ka8, Be6)

white black

1 Rh8 † Bc8 †

2 Qb7††

Black, on move 1, blocks white's rook check along the last rank. In doing so he checks white's king on a6, and it is a legitimate check, even though the bishop is pinned.

When white then interposes the queen to block the bishop check, the black king is in a mated position. His bishop cannot capture the pinned queen, because it is itself pinned! And the white queen does in fact threaten the black king because she would capture it before the black bishop had opportunity to capture the white king.

Answer 2

no, that's stalemate.

These don't work either:

king bishop

king knight

These works under the right conditions:

king knight knight (can never be forced)

king knight vs. king bishop (either can win if one lets the other)

Answer 3

No, you can not do that because then you will also put your king in combat. It is the only Chess unit that can not be used to checkmate.

Answer 4

It is very hard to do but yes you can put a king in checkmate with your king if no other piece on the board can move of the opposing color.