How to checkmate a lone king

A lone king cannot be mated in the centre - there is always somewhere to go. So every mating technique comes down to three steps:

1. 1. Cut offUse a long-range piece to take away part of the board: a rook or queen on a line is a wall the king cannot cross.
2. 2. ShrinkMove the cutting line step by step, reducing the box the king is locked in. Each move only makes it smaller - never give space back.
3. 3. Mate on the edgeOnce the king is pressed to the edge, bring your own king up and let the long-range piece deliver mate. In almost every basic mate your king is essential.

The single exception is mate with two rooks: there your king can stand anywhere, the rooks manage on their own.

Each mate below opens on an interactive board with the position already set up, so you can move the pieces and test your technique.

The order to learn them is straightforward: two rooks, queen, and queen with rook are the base you should be able to deliver without thinking. Rook and king is the compulsory minimum for tournament play. Two bishops and bishop with knight are for those playing seriously: in practice they appear a handful of times in years.

The queen mate is the first one people learn and the only one where a beginner regularly draws instead of winning. The reason is stalemate.

The queen is so powerful that it easily takes away every square at once. Hence the rule: before every queen move, check that the king still has at least one square. If it has none and there is no check, that is stalemate and half a point thrown away.

The safe technique: approach the enemy king with the queen a knight's move away, shrinking the box step by step, and only bring your own king up once the king is pinned to the edge.

Even with a queen, the mate cannot take forever. If fifty consecutive moves pass with no capture and no pawn move, either side may claim a draw.

In practice the limit almost never bites: the queen mate takes about a dozen moves and the rook mate is quick too. It only becomes a real problem with bishop and knight, where the technique runs to some thirty moves and any error costs time.

Note that the draw does not happen automatically - it has to be claimed. In an event with notation the players count the moves themselves from their scoresheets.

Some material combinations cannot deliver mate at all, however well you play. Such games are drawn immediately:

• King against king.
• King and bishop against king.
• King and knight against king.
• King and two knights against king. Mate is theoretically possible but only through a gross error by the defender - it cannot be forced.

The practical lesson for the endgame: when trading down with a material edge, make sure you are not left with a single bishop or knight. In that situation an extra pawn is worth more than an extra minor piece.

• Set the position up and play it out against an engine. It will defend as stubbornly as possible, so the technique gets an honest test.
• Count your moves. The aim is not merely to mate but to mate quickly - a dozen moves with the queen.
• Start from different positions. Mating from the corner is easy; from the centre is the real exercise.
• Repeat every couple of months. The rook technique fades fast without use.
• Do not learn bishop and knight first. The classic enthusiast's mistake: a month spent on a mate you will meet once in a lifetime, instead of on tactics.

Related reading - tactics for beginners, pawn endgames.