It’s already both happened to me that I didn’t notice I couldn’t move a piece without exposing the king or that I won by accident. Had the game not announced this, I wouldn’t have known.
And perhaps the opponent might not notice my mistake either. Or it could just be a strategic high-risk scenario, rather than a mistake.
If you self-check, your opponents next move is always to take the king and win. Check means ‘if it’s my turn I can capture your king’.
How is that different from resigning?
The player can still draw by refusing to self check, right?
If you refuse to make a move, you resign, you lose.
If you are unable to make a move, it’s a stalemate, you do not lose.
It just gives you an extra chance to avoid a total loss by having your opponent make a mistake.
Got it.
A game that would normally stalemate because the only move is self check becomes a loss because you have a self check available.