In this course you've learned to capture your opponent's pieces, and to defend your own pieces. If you've managed to get a winning material advantage, it is likely you will have to checkmate your opponent in the endgame. In this chapter you can learn and practice to checkmate your opponent with a queen, with a rook, or with two bishops.

In this level you can checkmate the opponent's king with your king and queen.

This is not difficult at all, but here are some tips:

The queen alone is not enough

The queen alone is not able to deliver checkmate. On its own, the queen can only stalemate the opponent's king, which would only be a draw.

Oh no, stalemate! Not what you deserve after playing a good game and being a queen up!

What the checkmate looks like

Therefore, your king has to help. King and queen can deliver checkmate only on the edge of the board. This is what the final checkmate might look like:

Diagram 1: The queen is next to the opponent's king, and protected by your own king.
Diagram 2: The queen delivers checkmate on the back-rank, while your king prevents escape by guarding the second rank.

How to get there

Combine the following two ideas until the opponent's king is checkmated:

1. Use the queen to restrict the opponent's king.
2. Then bring in your own king and force the opponent's king further toward the edge of the board.

For example:

White could play 1.Qc5 to restrict the black king to the rectangle from d8 to h6.
After Black replies 1...Kf6, we get the following position:

Now White can approach with the king, for example: 2.Kc2 Ke6 3.Kd3 Kf6 4.Ke4 Ke6.

Now that the king is close, White can continue to restrict the opponent's king further, for example with 5.Qc6+.

When playing this level, you can look at the solutions to see the quickest way to deliver checkmate.

Avoid stalemate

Oh no, stalemate again. Don't play like this! Always make sure that after your move the opponent's king isn't stalemated!