ChessschoolCheckmate with king and queen
Use your queen to restrict the enemy king, then bring your king closer to support the final mate.
Make the box smaller
Use the queen to cut off ranks or files. Keep it safe from the enemy king and avoid checking without a plan. You usually want the opposing king near an edge.
Bring your king
Your king controls escape squares that the queen cannot cover safely alone. The kings must never stand on neighbouring squares. Make progress while leaving legal moves if the opposing king is not in check.
Check for stalemate
Before every restricting move, ask whether the opponent still has a legal move. A king with no legal move and no check is stalemated: the game is drawn. In the diagram, the queen on g7 is protected by the king on f6.
Try it yourself
Black: Kh8. White: Kf6, Qg7. Black to move. Is this checkmate?
Check the answer
Yes. The queen checks h8, covers g8 and h7, and is protected by the white king. Black cannot escape or capture it.
Put it into practice
Open the related lesson Practise with puzzles
Sources and corrections
For the official rules, see the FIDE Laws of Chess. Found an error? Send the position and page address.