Essential Chess checkmates involving the King, Queen and Rook
Has your entry into the black and white jungle been fairly recent? Have you only just come to grips with the deceptive ways of the chess pieces? Are you finding it hard to corner the enemy king and rule the board? If your answer to these questions is yes,
then you are staring at the right page, because in this piece we will educate you in the art of making a checkmate.
Before that, let us take you back in time and familiarise you with the history of the word. Checkmate traces its origins to the Persian word of ‘Shah Mat’. The literal translation of the words is ‘the King is helpless’. The contemporary usage of the word
means a strategic victory.
In order to enable you to secure this strategic victory, we will introduce you to the basic types of checkmates involving the king, queen and the rook and how they are performed.
King and Queen
The King and Queen checkmate is a very simple one to perform. This mate can take place in endgames where the opposing player has only his/her king left whereas you have a king and queen only. However, there are two types of variations that can occur in such
a situation.
Variation 1: The enemy king should be shoved to any side of the board and the queen placed directly in front in such a way that her king is protecting her from being captured by the enemy king. In this way, the queen is putting the enemy
king under check and as the threatened king cannot capture the queen, it is checkmated.
Variation 2: Again, the enemy king should be pushed back against any side of the chess board. When this is done, your king should be placed directly in front of the enemy king at a distance of one rank. This will restrict the enemy
king to the rank or file on the side of the board only.
Depending on which side of the board the enemy king is restricted to, the queen should be placed on the same file or rank as the enemy king. This position will cause a checkmate to occur.
King and Rook
The combination of a king and a rook can also be extremely lethal in endgames. If a player is left with only these two pieces, it is not difficult to make a checkmate on the enemy king. For this type of checkmate also, there are two possible variations.
Variation 1: The enemy king must be backed off to any side of the board. Once it is in that position, your king must be brought in opposition to it. This means that the king must be standing directly in front of the enemy king with a rank
or file in between them.
Like in the case of the king and queen checks, this position will also restrict the king to the file or rank on the side of the board. Once it is in this position, the rook can be brought to the file or rank on which the enemy king is present. This will
create a checkmate for the restricted king.
Variation 2: In contrast to the first variation, a checkmate can be achieved without the two kings being in opposition. However, in this case too, the enemy king needs to be restricted to any one side of the board. He then has to be pushed
into a corner in order to successfully accomplish a checkmate.
A cornered enemy king gets its adjacent three squares threatened by the other king, which is placed at a distance of a file and a rank away from it. The corner square on which the enemy king is positioned is then brought under attack by bringing the rook
on the same file or rank as the enemy king.
With that, we end your lesson in the basic checkmates involving the king, queen and the rook. To put what you have learned into practice, go ahead and play some chess.
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