The Endgame Checkmate with Queen and Rook Checkmate in the opening is possible only as the result of a gross blunder by one of the players and occurs rarely among strong chessplayers. Nor is it possible in every game to checkmate your opponent in the middlegame, when there are still a lot of pieces on the board. Thus games are often in fact decided only in the endgame, when the number of pieces on the board has been considerably reduced as a result of exchanges. ‘The main goal of a player in the endgame is generally not an immediate checkmate, as there are usually too few pieces left to organize a mating attack. Rather, the player strives first of all to queen a pawn, after which checkmating the opponent will not be difficult.ew eruare abedefeh 2. Qb1-b5 + The Queen takes control of the Sth rank and at the same time protects the Rook.