This is the first checkmate I teach, and the one I have seen thrown away most often. Not because it is hard. Because the queen is so powerful that people forget the lone king is allowed to have no moves only if it is also in check. Learn the method below and you will never stalemate again, and you will finish in about ten moves.
The idea: a box that gets smaller
The lone king has to be pushed to an edge. The queen does the pushing, and she does it best from a knight’s move away from the enemy king. From there she cuts off two whole ranks and files at once, and the king can never attack her. Every time the king steps back, the queen follows, keeping the same knight’s-move distance, and the box shrinks.
Here is a typical start. Black’s king is in the middle; White’s queen takes up the knight’s-move post.
Play it through: 1.Qb4 Ke5 2.Qc4 Kf5 3.Qd4 Kg6 4.Qe5 Kh6. Four queen moves, not one of them a check, and the black king has gone from the middle of the board to the h-file. Now the queen stops and the white king walks: 5.Kg3 Kh7 6.Kg4 Kg8 7.Qe7 (cutting the king off on the back rank) Kh8 8.Kg5 Kg8 9.Kg6 Kh8 10.Qg7 checkmate, the queen next to the king and guarded by her own king on g6. Ten moves, and the black king was allowed to run wherever it liked.
Notice three things. The queen never gives a check until the very end; checks just let the king wander. The queen stays a knight’s move from the king until he is on the edge. And the mate itself needs the white king standing on g6, one square away with a square between them, covering the escape squares the queen cannot.
The finish, properly
With the enemy king in a corner or on an edge, bring your king to one square away, with one square between them, and drop the queen next to the enemy king so that your own king protects her. Or give the mate along the edge with the queen a full rank away, as long as your king covers the escape squares.
8 g And the other picture, the queen a rank away, the king guarding the flight squares:
8 a Both are the same thing: the lone king has three squares at most, your king covers them, the queen gives the check.
The stalemate you must not allow
Here is the position that has drawn more won games than any other. White to move, queen on g6, Black’s king on h8. Every square round the black king is covered: g7, g8, h7. He is not in check. If White plays any quiet move that keeps it that way, or it is Black to move right now, it is stalemate.
8 The cure is a habit, not a trick. Before every queen move that is not a check, count the enemy king’s squares. If the answer is zero, you are about to draw. Give the king one square, or give check. From the diagram above, with White to move, 1.Qg7 is mate; with Black to move it is already too late. The move before, the queen should have stood on e6 instead of g6: the black king keeps h7, has to go there, and 1…Kh7 2.Qf7+ Kh8 3.Qg7 is mate. There is a whole page on how to avoid stalemate because it comes up with the rook too.
The method as a checklist
- Put the queen a knight’s move from the enemy king. Do not check.
- Each time he steps away, follow, keeping the knight’s-move distance, until he is on an edge and the box is two squares wide.
- Stop moving the queen. Walk your king up until it stands one square away from the enemy king with one square between them.
- Count his squares. Then deliver mate: queen next to him protected by your king, or queen along the edge with your king covering the flights.
Ten moves is the ceiling. If you are taking twenty, you are probably giving checks. Try the whole thing once against a friend or an engine set to play random moves, from a queen on d1 and kings on e1 and e8, and it will stick after three or four goes. Then do the same with king and rook against king, which uses the same box idea with a slower piece, and you will have the two endings that win more games at beginner level than any opening ever will. For a short, named version of the final picture, see the kiss of death.