Explanation

A queen giving check to the adjacent king is often checkmate. The queen has to be protected, otherwise the king could capture the queen. On the edge of the board, the queen will also cover all, or all but one of the escape squares. Such a mate is sometimes also called the "Kiss of death", or "Kiss mate", as the queen supposedly steps next to the king for a kiss. If the queen is protected by a rook, the mate is called Damiano's rook mate.

Examples

White can use the semi-open h-file to deliver Damiano's rook mate with Qh7#.

White has invaded the 7th rank with rook and queen and can deliver Damiano's rook mate with Qh7#.

Pattern matching

A rook on an open or semi-open file can be very dangerous, especially if the enemy king is on the same file, or close to it. If the queen joins the attack, Damiano's rook mate can quickly become a threat. In middlegames, especially with kings castled to opposite sides, a pawn-storm is often a good plan, where you push your pawns forward with the aim of opening one or more files for the rooks toward the opponent's king.

Damiano's bishop mate is a similar pattern, with a bishop protecting the queen instead of a rook.