Black King And Queen Drawing

Checkmating with the Queen

image2.gif (11183 bytes)

The Queen is a very powerful piece and there are several ways to checkmate with it. Here are some checkmating patterns:

The Queen must force the enemy King to the edge of the board and then the King comes to help the Queen deliver checkmate. Notice how in the first two diagrams the King is protecting the Queen from being captured. In the last two diagrams the King is guarding the escape squares.

In this diagram the Black King is in the centre of the board. White must force it to the edge.

Checkmate

1.Qc4

The Queen advances to a square that is a Knight's jump away from the King.

She then drives the King to the edge of the board by keeping a Knight's jump distance away.

1. ... Kf5 2.Qd4 Ke6 3.Qc5 Kf6 4.Qd5 Ke7 5.Qc6 Kf7 6.Qd6 Ke8 7.Qc7 Kf8 8.Qd7 Kg8 9.Qe7 Kh8

Beware! The Queen cannot get any closer to the King. If White moves the Queen to f7 Black's King is stalemated and the game is a draw. This is a very common trap!

The White King now needs to come to the Queen's aid.

10.Kf2 Kg8 11.Kg3 Kh8 12.Kg4 Kg8 13.Kg5 Kh8 14.Kg6 Kg8 15.Qe8#

This is the pattern shown in the third diagram above!

Once again, you must practise this way of checkmating. A Queen against a lone King endgame is very common when a player has managed to promote a pawn so you must know how to carry it out, especially if your opponent is very stubborn and will not resign. Remember too that you must checkmate within 50 moves as it is a draw if 50 consecutive moves occur without a capture or pawn move.

Index