The strategy to mate with two Rooks against a lone King is very similar to the strategy to checkmate with two Queens: in both cases the idea is to make little jumps with the pieces to drive the King to the edge of the board.
Here, the fact that a Rook is less powerful than a Queen brings in two small differences:
This lesson is a part of our series of lessons about the basic checkmates:
- How to checkmate with two Queens against the lone King.
- How to checkmate with one Queen against the lone King.
- And next, how to checkmate with one Rook against the lone King.
All those situations are winning for the side with the material advantage. Hence you should be able to convert your advantage 100% of the time ! Now, as usual, let’s have a look to the final position.
We will start with a random position and see how White can force the checkmate from there. The method is generic, so you will be able to apply it in your games, even if the start position differs.
To checkmate your opponent with 2 Rooks, always follow the following principles:
- Move your Rooks rank by rank or file by file, to trap the King.
- If the King threatens to capture a Rook, move it to the other wing and continue.
- Continue until checkmate.
This should be enough for the checkmate with two Rooks. The method is generic, and the only potential trick for your opponent is to try to capture one of your Rooks, which is easy to parry. In the next chapter, we are going to study another very important and much more difficult checkmate: how to mate with one Rook against a sole King.
