Some Basic Checkmates in the Endgame

Endgames are the most crucial portion of the game. Even if you have built a very strong foundation to your game, failure to finish off the opponent when given the chance will be disastrous should the opponent manage to come back strongly.

In the following pages below, you will find some of the checkmates in the endgame. The basic ones are: (in order of difficulty) King & Queen vs King, King & Rook vs King, King & 2 Bishops vs King and King, Bishop & Knight vs King (which we shall not cover due to its complexity. Anyway, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to checkmate the opposition within 50 moves, which is stipulated in the Rules & Moves of Chess.). Note that it is impossible to force the opponent into checkmate when you have your King & 2 Knights against a lone King, but a mate is possible if he *cooperates* with you (see diagram below).

In the above diagram, the Black King has two legal moves, either to a6 or a8. If he moves to a8, your Knight swings down to c7 or b6 and mates =).

King & Queen vs King

This endgame is the simplest of basic mates in the endgame. It is only necessary to force the single King to the nearest side of the chess-board, and then bringing up your own King, you mate in a few more moves. The diagrams below will demonstrate some of the positions in which a lone Black King is mated with a White King and Queen.

It is vital to note that, the Queen being able to check in all directions, that there is always a danger of stalemating when you have a clear advantage. Always make sure before every move that the single King has a square to move too, or you would have thrown away a very easy win. You can download the PGN (Portable Game Notation) file demonstrating moves to the above checkmate here. For a PGN viewer, go to the Downloads page.

On the next page we have the checkmates for King & Rook vs King and King & 2 Bishops vs King.