How to Checkmate in Chess

When coaching new players I try to drill into their minds this following truth: checkmate is an essential, and fundamental skill. It’s how you win the game. Galvanizing checkmate patterns into your mind is fundamental to both completing a game, as well as some middlegame strategy that both avoids you getting into checkmate patterns and snares your opponents into checkmate patterns.

Checkmating is forcing a position in chess where a king is in check and cannot avoid capture on the following turn. Knowing how to checkmate is a fundamental skill in which all players need to understand and master when learning chess. Checkmates can be broken down, broadly, into two categories: basic endgame mates, and mating patterns.

In this article we will explain basic endgame checkmates!

Basic (Endgame) Mates

We will classify these as “The Basic Mates” or Endgame mates because they often times come up at the end of a game.

Two Rooks vs. a King
A King and Queen vs. a King
A King and Rook vs. a King
Two Bishops vs. a King

Two Rooks vs. a King Checkmate

The technique for Two Rooks versus a king is perhaps the easiest one. There are really only three major rules to remember.

Use one rook to hold the king’s position, use the other rook to check the king backwards towards the edge of the board.
The rooks need to be staggered so they can slide past one another.
Remember, rooks like to give check from a distance!

Queen and King vs. King Checkmate

The technique for this is simple, and there’s only one real trap to be aware of. This can be broken down into three phases.

Phase 1 – Use the queen to restrict the enemy king’s movement to just two squares
Phase 2 – Bring the king close to assist in the final checkmate.
Phase 3 – Deliver the final coup de grace.

Phase 1 is complete. The black king is restricted to moving between h8 and g8. Phase two can now begin, which is to bring the white king up for support.

Phase 2 is complete and now we are ready to deal the death blow!

Be aware there is one disastrous mistake you can make during Phase 1, which is to stalemate the enemy king. A stalemate is when the enemy king is not in check, and has no legal moves. Even though you’re up an entire queen, the game ends in a draw! Remember, always give the enemy king two spaces in which to move. If you restrict him to one, the game is a draw by stalemate.

Stalemate! The enemy king has nowhere to move, is not in check. The game ends as a draw!

A King and Rook vs. a King Checkmate

A rook and king vs. rook checkmate is an important one to know. The main reason is because it can possibly come up a lot. Approximately 9% of chess games end with kings, rooks, and pawns in an endgame. Often times a pawn will queen and one side will be forced to capture the new queen leaving this scenario on the board.

First thing to know about this checkmate is that this is what the final checkmate position looks like. The kings facing off directly with the rook delivering the final blow on the edge of the board.

Checkmate!

This is the position we want to reach with white to move. We will cover the principles of how to reach this position, and then what to do if we reach this position with black to move. And remember, rooks like to check from a distance!

There are three phases to accomplishing this goal similar to the Queen and King vs. King checkmate.

Force the enemy king to the edge
Set your king up to face the enemy king with it being your move (our critical position)
Deliver mate on the back rank

Phase one will be accomplished using three simple questions?

Can my rook safely restrict the enemy king’s movement? If yes, do so.
If no, am I safe to move my king closer to support my rook? If yes, do so.
If no, move your rook to safety first, then restart the questions.

It sounds complicated, but it’s not. Before each white move, ask yourself the questions and watch the moves almost play themselves.

We completed phase 1 without too much heartburn. Just follow the three questions and you’ll be fine! Now onto phase 2. Lining up your king facing off with it being your move to deliver mate. You already know what to do if it’s your move and the king’s are faced off, you deliver checkmate. But what happens when it’s black’s move and your faced off? Easy. We move our rook to the other side of our king and just waste some time!

Two Bishops and a King vs. a King

In this example we’re going to coordinate an attack using our two bishops and a king! It’s actually going to be similar in execution to the first example of two rooks. You’re going to use your bishops to first drive your king to the edge, and then he must be checkmated in a corner with the support of your king! The rooks can mate the king by themselves, but the bishops will need the king’s help! Similar to the other, there are three phases.

Trap the enemy king in a triangle
Bring your king up for support and tighten the triangle
Begin rolling checks until you checkmate in a corner!

Success! The king is trapped inside a triangle. Notice how the enemy king cannot approach the bishops because they’re working together to restrict squares! Now, onto phase 2, tightening that triangle.

This triangle is pretty tight! Now we have to start driving him to a corner. The great news about bishops is they are fantastic time wasters. We can “waste a move” with a bishop and easily force the enemy king to move him where we want. To finish this off, we’re going to use our bishop to restrict which squares the king can go to, so we can force him to the a1 corner and finish him off. The first move in this sequence is going to be a “waste move” and then a restricting move.

Mating Patterns

Knowing mating patterns will have a grand impact on your ability as a player. For example, the position below you may look white is in big trouble. However, any player who knows the “smothered mate” pattern knows that black is dead to rights. White has a forced win in 5 moves because black is has been snared into a mating pattern!

Here’s another example of a mating pattern that can often pop up in play. It does not have a name (as far as I know), but the theme is pretty common. Again, this is a pretty mundane looking position. But all good players know the table is set for a profound checkmate!

And finally, one you’ll run into often is the back rank mate. This one pops up a lot in a lot of different forms. Here black makes a crucial mistake because he thinks he can win the rook on b1. But he overlooked the back rank checkmate!

There are literally thousands of middlegame checkmate patterns. Some have names, some don’t. It’s impossible for you to study each on in depth. You have to simply know them. And one of the ways you can learn them pretty quickly is by solving problems. I cannot recommend enough Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games by Laszlo Polgar. It is, without a doubt, the best book for anyone who wants galvanize checkmate patterns in their minds to become a serious player!

A Final Word

The techniques and moves shown here are not “objectively” best. They’re simply a set of rules for you to follow to get a feel for these checkmates. There are far more efficient and flashier ways to accomplish all of these things. However, these are fundamentals. You have to know how to execute these checkmates!

And finally, is it possible to checkmate with a bishop and a knight? Yes! However, we don’t cover that because it’s complicated. There are masters who do not know the correct technique to execute a Bishop and Knight vs. King checkmate. So yes, it is possible, but definitely beyond the scope of beginner material. Happy king hunting!