Checkmate from a distance (2)

You already know that you can make checkmate from a distance.
It’s a nice and safe way of mating.
But all that space does have a downside.
Your opponent can use it to place a piece between your attacker and his king.
This way of defending is called blocking.

Look at the first example to see how this works:
It looks like White can mate in two ways. Moving one of his rooks to the back rank should do the trick.
Or shouldn’t it? Nope!
If White moves up his left rook one square, the black king is indeed trapped.
But Black can still move his knight between his king and the white rook!
That is why White moves up the other rook. Now, it is checkmate.
The king is trapped. And Black can’t move a piece between his king and the white rook.

Another way of getting out of check is capturing. This is shown in the second example.
Either rook that moves to the 8th row checks the king.
But can they both checkmate?
No, they can’t! If White moves up the right rook, the bishop can capture it.
White has to move the left rook to checkmate the king. The king is trapped. The bishop can’t take the rook. And blocking is not possible either.

Remember: always keep an eye on how the other player might get out of check.

What do you have to do?
Checkmate the king from a distance.