
Simple Checkmates against the Lonely King
King against King and Rook, King and Bishops against King and Queen and King against King. When You start to study chess, the first thing you should do, is to familiarize
yourself with the power of the pieces. This can best be
done by learning how to accomplish quickly some of
the simple mates.
Rook and King against King
In the ending of Rook and King against King, the
principle is to drive the opposing King to the last line
of any side of the board.
In this position the power of the rook is demonstrated by the first move, which immediately confines the black king to the last rank, and the mate is quickly accomplished.
Since the black king is in the centre of the board, the best way to proceed is to advance your own king:
Two Bishops and King against King
In all endings of this kind, care must be taken not to drift into a stalemate. --- In this particular ending one should remember that the king must not only be driven to the edge of the board but also into a corner. In all such endings, however, it is immaterial whether the king is forced onto the last rank or to an outside file, e.g. h4 or a5, e8 or d1.
Queen and King against King
We now come to queen and king against king. As the queen combines the power of the rook and the bishop it is the easiest mate of all and should always be accomplished in under ten moves. Take the following position: A good way to begin is to make the first move with the queen, trying to limit the black king's mobility as much as possible. In this ending, as in the case of the rook, the black king must be forced to the edge of the board; only the queen being so much more powerful than the rook, the process is far easier and shorter.
There are the three elementary endings and in all three of these the principle is the same. In each case the co-operation of the king is needed. In order to force a mate without the aid of the King, at least two Rooks are required.
Would you like to improve your chess?
You can read about my coaching in this article when I was coach of the month on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/article/view/coach-of-the-month-im-attila-turzo
You can visit my webpage to read student testimonials at https://attilaturzo.com/