Finding mating nets, and how to deal with them (Checkmate endings)

Recently, I got asked a question about mating nets. They wanted to know, "How can I tell when I can trap their Queen or King and how to carry it out?" This seems to be a fairly common question, and here, I will be going into how you can find these and how to go through these scenarios. 

I will start with an example of a king offense mating net, and try to explain my thought process behind it as I go.

This example is a 3056 rated mating net puzzle. As we can see, there are multiple things happening though this puzzle follows a simple theme. Our knight is currently blocking any power queen checks. The opponent has put his queen on a better diagonal for multiple reason. 

1. They want to promote the pawn and are protecting it. We need to stop this from happening somehow, but do not have any direct ways.

2. They are defending their king, but do not want the weaker diagonal and back rank to be their main defense.

To get through these assumptions, we need to first find a way to stop the pawn from promoting, and the position of the king can quickly be identified as a possibility for a mating attack by you since the position is really open. The first move that can be done to block the pawn promoting and you having insufficient material would be to check, so let's see what happens when we play Nd6+. We play this move directly to open up the queen's c file to make it stronger as a piece in a mating attack, and to get a power check to stop the opponent from promoting their h pawn.

The king has now pushed itself to a7 as to not lose really quickly and to try to protect itself, a stronger move for it, but we can still continue a strong push on this. We need to remember that we lose this game if the opponent has one turn out of check, whether or not instant, and the longest continuation out of check is if we get our queen to e1. We need to continue checking to win, so let's play another strong move, Qc7+.

Black's king is now being pushed outside of the safe h1-a8 diagonal, and we can now start to trap it for checkmate. We now continue a push with even more power checks, and try to get the king into the same quadrant as ours on the board, completely out of the safety of their queen for now.

3. Qc8+ pushes the king out nearly to our side of the board.

4. Qc3+ forces the king to continue moving down, because other than this, they lose either a queen or are forced to follow 4. Qc3+ Ka6 5. Qc8+ Ka7 5. Qc3+ Ka6 draw. (4. Qc3+ Ka4 is played in real scenario)

5. Qc4+ Ka3 is played, once again black trying to avoid perpetual check.

6. Nb5+ Kb2 is played, black now losing a chance to draw the game. However, this is where we, white, need to start being careful, as the black queen is taking care of the b file. We continue to play for mate, as we need to, so continue our path.

7. Qc3+ Kb1 is now played. This is a play that may make it look like the next move for us is Nb2+, but let's quickly look at the different options that can follow mate. After looking over it once more, you may notice that the a2 square is nothing but defended by black, so we need to find a way to get the opponent's king to this square and follow an attack that works. We find that we can do this in another way that we will see in the next move.

8. Qc1+ Ka2 is now played, a great move that forces black! We are now to a forced mate after a long volley of checking due to our king being in imminent danger and are now momentarily going to win this game! The c3 square is also no longer occupied, allowing another great queen check. Knight check is not reasonable for move 9 as this leaks the king, and we may then need to completely reset out force.

9. Qa3+ Kb1 is now played, forcing the king back to the edge of the board, but now the queen is pressuring black's king toward our own, more spaces controlled therefore, allowing checkmate.

10. Nc3 is now played, checkmating black and winning the game!

This is how mating net puzzles are followed, and though this is an advanced example, it still follows the basic method. I will now explain what to look for when you're in a mating net, and how to proceed with it.

1. Look at the board. What is defending the opponent's king? Is too much happening around it to force it out? Is there force that can be applied directly onto the king? 

2. Begin to find a way to force the king into the center of the board, or the same quadrant (the 4 16-square corners are the quadrants) as your king or the majority of your power pieces if it's not a simple puzzle.

3. Force out the king, normally done with a queen and a minor piece.

4. Push the opposing king to the final area, close to your king, and deliver checkmate!

5. Watch through the entire puzzle for ways the opponent's pieces can stop yours, and go around these (in example, black queen was the only primary opposition)

This concludes my tips for checkmate ending mating nets! I hope this helps and anybody with any questions can feel free to ask me questions! Have a great day!! ♪(^∇^*)