I played a friendly OTB match earlier this evening, and after a long struggle the game ended up in a King and Rook against a King, Rook and Bishop ending. Neither of us knew whether this was a draw or win, so we played on. I was on the defending side and managed to draw after a long struggle, but the question is, is it a draw or should I have lost? More interestingly, what are the crucial situations in such an endgame, and how does the successful side defend/win?

depends on the position i'd think it would be a draw with perfect play but not sure

Its a draw, Now I played a game as white against the French, I sacrificed a Minor pieces to get a nice checkmate threat going, and eventualy get my rook on the 7th which I used to create some very nice passers on the queenside, however I didn't recover the minor until the endgame, which turned into a K and R v lone King where I had no pawns, as soon as it did, my opponent resigned, but it was fun, it taught me a lot about maintaining active play against a stronger force

yeah

black wins

That is an exception, more likely the position was akin to this

i know just saying

it is good to offer counter points like this one

cute right

heh

Can you two please stop spamming this thread? If this carries on I might not realise if someone actually posts a useful answer to my question.

our answers were useful! Didnt you read anything?

Depends on the position. It would help if you post the final position for more experienced players than myself to examine.

Many times it's a draw, but you have to know how to defend it.  There are some winning positions though... I'd say this is totally optional for a student though, as the theory on this endgame (if you wanted to delve into it) is, say, 500x more than the bishop & knight vs lone king mate :)

Here's some basic info:

First the standard winning position (you thought Philidor only did rooks maybe? )  Black is pressed against the edge, a very dangerous situation in this endgame, and fatal here.

And one of the basic drawing methods is the Cochrane position which is a defense by preventing the king from pressing you against the edge as above.  Because this draw is difficult, in tournament play you usually must prove your defense for 50 moves before your opponent will let you have the draw :)

Lets see if I can remember the stages of the winning technique :p

1st is get enemy rook on the 1st rank, then you can switch sides.

2nd, you get him on the 3rd rank, check the king, and switch sides (i.e. gain a tempo and go to 4th rank).

3rd, you get your rook to the 4th rank to prepare your bishop to cut of enemy rook.

And then it's soon mate.

You'll notice the only reason all of this works is there are tons of mate threats that force black's hand the whole way.

Thanks waffllemaster, I appreciate you taking the time to post all that! Even in Philidor's study it looks like White must play very accurately and against a lot of Black ideas.

The position of my game at the point where it was traded down into this endgame was:

np :)

Here's a handy site if you didn't know it already.

http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en

Input the fen from you game and it shows that every move that doesn't immedately lose your rook holds the draw (which seems right, your king has lots of space).

WIM Energia has an article on this if anyone wants to go and find it.