Mate with queen and king is the first ending to make automatic. The technique: the queen, a knight's move from the enemy king, narrows his space and pushes him from the centre to the edge, while your own king comes up for the final blow.
Here White has the king on h1 and the queen on g1; Black has a lone king on d5 in the centre. White to move and the position is, of course, won (per the tablebases): the queen drives the king to the edge of the board step by step.
The main danger is stalemate: until the enemy king is pressed against the edge, do not take all his squares away at once. Keep the queen a knight's move from the king and stalemate will not happen.
Drag a piece onto the board, or click a piece and then click the squares. The cross beside the pieces sweeps every piece of that colour off the board, and a single piece can be dragged off the edge.
The pieces will be arranged into the chosen pattern.
It is the mating side to move. Find mate in one.
Openings, endgame positions and breakthrough studies - the set-up appears on the board.
Push the king to the edge with queen moves a knight's move away, then bring your own king up and mate with the queen right beside the enemy king.
Because the queen takes every square away from the king while there is no mate at that moment. Check before each move that the opponent still has a legal move.
With correct play, no more than ten from any position.
Build your own position in the board editor, read up on the rules of chess or run a tournament on your own positions in the free app.
The Vibe Chess app opens from a link and needs no installation. Setting up a tournament takes a minute: pick the system, set the date, the venue and the time control - the app handles the rest.
Sign up to the Vibe Chess bot on Telegram - it carries the schedule of meetups and chess events across the cities we run in.
