Chess Lessons for Beginners #1 - The Ladder Checkmate!

Introducing Chess Lessons for Beginners on Steemit!

Let’s kick off my 100 day challenge with some chess! Today, we are going to learn about the ladder checkmate. AKA, the two rook checkmate! Chess is a game of pattern learning and recognition, and if you learn this checkmate pattern, you are well on your way to checkmating success ;)

So in the following position you have two rooks. Delivering checkmate should be a piece of cake, right? It is if you know the right pattern!

Before I go into the chess, let me tell you a bit why I am doing these chess lessons for beginners.

Why Chess Lessons for Beginners?

|

Chess has been a passion of mine since high school. I am the President of the Hawaii Chess Federation, and a nationally rated “A” class tournament player. I love the game and love sharing it!

I have both a six year old and a three year old son. So I am putting together a series of beginner lessons that I can share with my kids and the wonderful people of steemit. I have designated Wednesdays as the day I post on chess, so if you want to learn chess, please stay tuned on Wednesdays!

Back to Today's Chess Lesson...

Your first task is to cut off half off the board from the king. You can start by the moving the rook on the a1 square to a4.

Notice how that once on the a4 square, the rook builds a wall, essentially forbidding the black king from ever stepping over the wall.

Once the king moves, your next task is to build the next step of the ladder! Be sure to keep the rook you just moved where it is, otherwise you are just moving the king back and forth…

How do you build the next step? With the other rook! Move it one “file” above your other rook, now creating a two file wall that the king cannot cross. In this case, your second rook moves to the b5 square.

See how the rooks are working together, moving up each rung of the ladder to build a wall?

So yes, the next step is to get to the next rung of the ladder and keep chasing the king up the board.

It doesn’t really matter where the king runs, because he is so far away from the rooks. Keep using the ladder to build that wall and keep pushing the king up the board!

Almost got him! I’m sure you know the final checkmating move, but here it is for you:

Your Chess Quiz Today - Checkmate in 3 Moves!

This is checkmate in 3 moves. Just be careful, there’s a bit of a trick in here ;) (Hint: don’t lose your rook!) Post in the comments your solutions and questions! Advanced players, please feel free to explain the technique you need to use to not get tricked ;)

Mahalo (thanks!) for reading, upvoting and sharing!