Critical Endgame Checkmates
It's important to be able to checkmate your opponent with a single major piece. The major pieces are the rooks and queen.
You can checkmate with a single rook or a single queen with the help of your king. In addition you can checkmate with a rook and queen or two rooks.
First I'll discuss checkmating with just two major pieces.
Find how white wins below.
Now look at this game below to see how you make that position a reality.
Make sure your opponent can't take either of your rooks. Always move the rooks as far from the enemy king as possible while still pushing him to a side of the board.
The strategy: Use one rook as a wall so the king can't escape to other side of the board. Use your other rook to check the king and force him closer to edge of board. Next move the other.
Below: Black just moved a rook to c7 to check the king. The white king will have to move to the g file. Black will soon checkmate the white king on the h file (far right).
Try this puzzle below. Do it efficiently.
Note below when the queen is on the outside you know the rook is defended.
While you may sometimes have faster checkmates, it's often easier to remove your opponent's remaining pieces first as shown below.
Now for checkmating with a single queen. Solve the puzzles with the ending position below.
