How to checkmate with King and Rook

Do you know how to checkmate with a Queen ?

This post is about what may be the most important fundamental checkmate to master: King and Rook vs a sole King. In practice, this endgame appears when your opponent sacrifices his Rook against your remaining pawns: you now only have one Rook left to deliver the mate.
To be clear, this is also a must-win situation: one Rook is enough to deliver the mate whatever the starting position is. This checkmate is however slightly harder to execute, and this post is here to show you how to master it, step by step.

All screenshots are taken from Chess Trainer, a free app dedicated to help you improve your Chess. The lessons aimed at beginners and intermediate players are available for free. Download the app now !


Now let's start this lesson, in a few minutes, you will be comfortable with the Rook checkmate.
First, this is the type of position you want to achieve:

How to checkmate with 2 rooks ?

Do you know how to checkmate with a Queen ?

If yes, you are ready for our next lesson, how to checkmate with 2 Rooks against a sole King. This checkmate is not that difficult to realize. Actually, once you understand the method, it is impossible to go wrong.
Let's first understand what the general strategy of this checkmate is: the idea is to make little jumps with your rooks to drive to opposing King to the edge of the board.
As opposed to the checkmate with a Queen, stalemate almost never occurs here, which is very good news for you !

All screenshots are taken from Chess Trainer, a free app dedicated to help you improve your Chess. The lessons aimed at beginners and intermediate players are available at no cost. Download the app now !


Now have a look to the next position: this is what you want to achieve:

How to checkmate with King and Queen ?

Today's post is dedicated to one of the most common situations an intermediate Chess player has to face: forcing checkmate with a King and a Queen against a sole King.
This position is often the result of a game well-played: your advantage is overwhelming and this is a "won position", nevertheless, you still actually have to win this game.

This post deals with the Queen checkmate and guides you through the whole process. All screenshots are taken from Chess Trainer.

 First, let's have a look at a typical final position. Note that the Queen has to be protected by the King.

Is it Mate or Stalemate ? An introduction for beginners

Mate or Stalemate ? This can be confusing for the beginner, as both situations are very much alike, in a sense. Nevertheless, making the difference is crucial as the Mate leads to a win whereas the Stalemate leads to a draw.
I am going to explain the differences in this post. I will use many situations to stress my point. All the screenshots are taken from Chess Trainer.

As a reminder, here are some definitions:
Checkmate: a position in which a player's king is directly attacked by an opponent's piece or pawn and has no possible move to escape the check. The attacking player thus wins the game.

Stalemate: a position counting as a draw, in which a player is not in check but cannot move except into check. Stalemate results in a draw.

Let's start with a short quizz, what is the best move here ?

Lesson 3

Lesson 2

Lesson 1