High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In games such as chess, shogi, and xiangqi, a check is the threat to capture the king (or general in xiangqi) on the next turn to move. A king so threatened is said to be in check. In the following move, the player whose king is in check must get their king out of check, if it is possible. Either the threat must be stopped (by interposing a piece between the threatening piece and the king, or capturing the threatening piece) or the king must be moved to a space where it is no longer in check. If the player cannot get out of check, the game ends in checkmate and the player loses. Announcing "check" is optional.