How to Checkmate with a Queen, a Rook or Two Rooks

You have won the opponent's pieces and only their king is left. Now you need to finish the game - and a surprising number of games are drawn, or even lost on time, at exactly this point. These three checkmates are the first endgames everyone should learn. Each takes a few minutes to understand and a few games to make automatic.

All three use the same idea: push the enemy king to the edge of the board, then mate it there. In the middle of the board, a king has too many squares to escape to.

Two rooks: the ladder mate

Two rooks (or a queen and a rook) mate without any help from your king. They take turns: one rook guards a rank, so the king cannot cross it, while the other rook checks on the next rank. Then they swap. The king is pushed back one rank at a time, like climbing a ladder.

Moves: 1. Ra3 Kf4 2. Rb4+ Kg5 3. Ra5+ Kg6 4. Rb6+ Kg7 5. Ra7+ Kg8 6. Rb8#

Open this position on the analysis board

One thing to watch: if the king walks towards your rooks, it may attack one. Then move that rook to the far side of the board along its rank - it still guards the rank, and the king is too far away to touch it.

King and queen against king

A queen alone cannot force mate - it needs the help of the king. The method has two stages:

1. Shrink the box. Use the queen to cut the king off in a smaller and smaller area. A good trick is to put the queen a knight's move away from the enemy king: it then takes away a lot of squares without giving check.
2. Bring your king up and deliver mate on the edge, with the queen protected by the king - or along the edge with the king guarding the escape squares.

Here the box is already as small as it gets - the queen holds the whole seventh rank, so the black king is stuck on the eighth. White just walks the king up:

Moves: 1. Ke2 Kf8 2. Ke3 Kg8 3. Ke4 Kf8 4. Ke5 Ke8 5. Ke6 Kd8 6. Qd7#

Open this position on the analysis board

Beware of stalemate

The danger with the queen is stalemate: the queen covers so many squares that it is easy to leave the king with no legal move but not in check. Each time the king is nearly trapped, count its squares before you move. If it has none and you are not giving check, it is a draw. See stalemate and the other draws.

King and rook against king

The rook mate takes a little longer, because a rook covers fewer squares than a queen. Again, the rook cuts the king off and your king walks up - but the final mate needs the kings facing each other (in opposition), with the rook checking along the edge.

Moves: 1. Ke2 Kd8 2. Ke3 Ke8 3. Ke4 Kd8 4. Ke5 Ke8 5. Kd6 Kf8 6. Ke6 Kg8 7. Kf6 Kh8 8. Kg6 Kg8 9. Ra8#

Open this position on the analysis board

If the black king steps in front of your king (opposition) at any moment, the rook mates straight away. If it keeps running, it runs into the corner. When you need to "lose" a move to get the opposition, a quiet rook move along its rank does it.

The rook mate can take up to sixteen moves from the worst starting position. Practise it until you can do it in well under the fifty moves the 50-move rule allows.

Practise until it is automatic

Set these positions up on the analysis board and play them against Stockfish - it will defend as stubbornly as possible. When you can mate it with the rook every time, you have learned the most important endgame skill there is. Then move on to the endgames every player should know, and test yourself with endgame puzzles.