Editing Checkmate (section)

==History==
In early Sanskrit chess ({{abbr|c.|circa}} 500–700), the king could be {{chessgloss|captured}} and this ended the game. The [[Persian people|Persians]] (c. 700–800) introduced the idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing ''check'' in modern terminology).  This was done to avoid the early and accidental end of a game. Later, the Persians added the additional rule that a king could not be moved into check or left in check. As a result, the king could not be captured,<ref name=dav22>{{harvnb|Davidson|1949|p=22}}</ref> and checkmate was the only decisive way of ending a game.<ref name=dav6364>{{harvnb|Davidson|1949|pp=63–64}}</ref>

Before about 1600, the game could also be won by capturing all of the opponent's pieces, leaving just a [[bare king]]. This style of play is now called ''annihilation'' or ''robado''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Short History of Chess|last=Davidson|first=Henry|publisher=Three Rivers Press|year=2012|isbn=9780307828293}}</ref> In [[Medieval times]], players began to consider it nobler to win by checkmate, so annihilation became a half-win for a while, until it was abandoned.<ref name=dav6364 />