Who knows how to win with queen v. rook?

The thought of checkmate with a bishop and knight usually causes despairing gasps, but at least the winning process is fairly concrete. Mate with a lone queen against a lone rook, on the other hand, is more difficult to pin down. There seem to be so many permutations, so a set of rules by which to guide yourself can prove quite elusive. Firstly, let’s look at what happens when black keeps his rook close to his king, which is generally the advice given to the defender of this ending, in order to avoid getting forked:

So far, so good. But that was an example of black playing “by the rules”, as it were. However, it’s not always so easy to pick up the rook once it has moved away from the king. Going back to the original position:

Going back to the original position one last time, it’s worth knowing that:

This analysis does not cover every angle by any means, but hopefully it tackles the relevant themes required. Try it against your computer a few times and see how you get on…