Queen and knight mate in two

Queen and knight are the deadliest attacking pair in chess. Drive the king in, then land the blow.

Lesson

White to move. Main line: 1. Qd4+ Kg8 2. Qg7#

Qd4 checks on the long diagonal. Wherever the king goes, Qg7 is mate — the knight on f5 defends the queen and simultaneously covers the king’s remaining flight squares (h6 and g7’s approaches).

Queen and knight outperform queen and bishop in attacks because they never duplicate: the knight covers exactly the squares the queen cannot. When you have this pair near the enemy king, look for a forced net — it is usually there.

If Kh7: Qg7#