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Stalemate traps

You have already learned about stalemate traps. If your king cannot move and you have only one piece left: get rid of your last piece to bring about a stalemate.

But what if your king still has freedom of action? Can you use a stalemate trap in that situation as well? Yes, you can!
Again, you have to force your opponent into capturing your last piece.

Have a look at the example to see how White cleverly tricks the opponent into stalemate.

What do you have to do?
Trap your opponent into stalemate. Sacrifice your last piece to bring about a stalemate. Make sure that your opponent is forced to capture it.


Things look bad for White. He would be quite happy with a draw! But he still has a queen and his king can move to the green square. White has to get rid of his queen and cramp his king. Both in one move. Can he make that happen?

White comes up with a very smart trick: a double attack!
He checks the king with his queen. And he attacks the black queen as well.
Click on the play button to watch the moves.

Black could get out of check by moving away his king.
But then, White would take the queen and might even win the game after all.
To stop White from winning, Black must capture the queen.
The bad news is that White cannot move his king anymore.
Black has been trapped into a stalemate!