Beginner's Guide to Checkmates

Beginner's Guide to Checkmates

Part 1

The entire purpose of chess is to deliver checkmate to your opponent's king. This is when one of your pieces is attacking the enemy king, but the king is unable to move or be blocked and will inevitably be lost on the next turn. There are many unique and different ways to deliver checkmate, but when just beginning, there are a few simple and must-know mate patterns that can come in handy. 

The Backrank Mate

This is probably one of the simplest and most blundered mate at the beginner's level. It involves the enemy king being on the backrank, while there are pieces blocking the 2nd rank (usually pawns) and allows for a rook and queen to mate the king by taking control of the back row. 

It is usually a good idea to allow your king some breathing room by advancing your pawn a bit.

Also, realize that sacrificing your queen to deliver a backrank mate may be a possibility.

Ladder Mate

This checkmate is the simpliest to deliver if you are able to successfully outplay your opponent and take out all of his pieces. This mate involves having 2 rooks or having queens instead of rooks. It involves checking the king consecutively row by row. 

Notice how the rooks are able to work together to push the king backwards, as they cover two of the rows of the king's box until the king has no where left to go and is mated. This can easily be done with a queen as well. 

With the aid of the queen, the king is not even able to repel the rook to delay mate. 

Mate with Queen

However, you may just be left with your king and queen. Luckily, this is also a fairly simple mate. The easiest thing is to walk your king with the queen to slowly push the enemy king back to the backrank. Once the enemy king is on the backrank, the queen can cut the king off and easily deliver mate. 

But be careful not to blunder a stalemate.

This is one of the most common blunders that I see beginners make, which is to make a sort of "X" with their queen and king, resulting in a stalemate.

Mate with Rook

Checkmating with 1 rook is a little bit more difficult, as it isn't able to attack diagonally, but it can still force a mate. The key is for the king and rook to work together. The king is able to cut off the enemy's ability to move forward if it takes opposition, allowing the rook to further knock the enemy king backwards. 

You can see the pattern of the ladder mate, with the enemy king having two rows of its box being attacked, resulting in it having to retreat backwards. After it retreats, the rook ensures that the king is continually cut off until it ends in the back rank and checkmate can be delivered. However, it may be difficult to get the enemy king in front of your king, which requires the rook to get involved in pushing the enemy to the side of the board. 

When I first practiced the rook mate, I would find myself just trying to get the king in front of the other king and aimlessly checking with my rook. The mate can get tedious for beginners, but it is certainly worth practicing. 

The 2 Bishop Mate

Now this checkmate is a more difficult checkmate to master. It involves the coordination of both bishops and the king to push the enemy king to the corner of the board. 

The king is necessary to block the enemy from escaping the one square that the bishops can't cover. But in order to get the enemy to the corner, it can take a lot more work, manuvering. It often takes moving backwards to cut off the enemy from advancing back while also not falling into stalemate.

The two bishop checkmate is one of the trickest mates to master for beginners and requires some thought and precision. But generally, it requires using the two bishops to cut off the enemy king's ability to escape and slowly close the king's box. 

Knight and Bishop Mate

This is the final mate that can be delivered if your opponent has only his king remaining. The knight and bishop mate requires a fairly specific move pattern that is often referred to as a "w".

The knight and bishop checkmate is one of the most difficult checkmates to master, and I still have trouble doing this mate. It involves sharp precision in using your king to take opposition, as well as using the knight to cover the squares that the bishop can't. In both the 2 bishops and knight and bishop mate, the bishops are used to restrict the enemy's ability to escape. Chess.com has a lot of endgame practice and mate patterns that can be used to help you sharpen this mate. 

But these were some of the most important mates for beginners to know. Mainly the mates when your enemy king is isolated. I plan on making a second part some time in the future to cover some of the trick mates, such as fool's and scholar's but as well as to cover some of the more advanced mates, such as Anastasia's, Boden's, Smothered, etc. Let me know some checkmates that you want to see in part 2!