How to Win With a Knight & Bishop - The Ultimate Guide - Calculation Part VIII

Having only a knight and bishop without the proper preparation is the best way to ensure you draw what should be a winning position.

Any remotely serious chess player knows this and will put your skills to the test if given a chance.

So you have to do your homework!

It does take practice.

It does take some memorization. 

But it's 100% worth it!

With a bit of guidance through the labyrinth of logic, in time, you'll be able to chart a clear path to victory!

Much like the endgame we discussed where you only have two bishops, your king plays a vital role and you'll still have to force your enemy's king into a corner.

But unlike the endgame with two bishops, you can't just force the king into the corner that's most convenient to you.

If you have the light-squared bishop, you'll have to checkmate him in a corner with a light square. The opposite is true if you have a dark-squared bishop.

Here's the formation you need to start the process.

The placement of your knight and king is critical. In this setup, the bishop can be anywhere along this diagonal from b8 to g3.

Now the black king will try to go farther from the mating corner, a1, and go to a7.

(He could go to a5, but it would lead to a faster checkmate, as we'll see soon. For this blog, I'll only show optimal or typical black moves that make sense.)

You'll notice that if it were black's turn again, he would be forced to move closer to the mating corner.

That's our cue that it's time to waste a tempo!

Time for a bishop move!

Now black has two options. We still want him to go toward a1. How can we prevent him from moving back to a7?

That's right! Bishop to b8, removing an escape square!

Oh no! Now the black king has two options!

• He could go back to a6
• He could get away from the board's edge by going to b4! 

What move should we make to keep him from getting to the center?

The non-intuitive knight to d5!

If this looks familiar, it's because it's the same setup we had at the beginning of the sequence that shifted closer to the mating square. 

Clearly, this won't work for black, so he may try something more clever...

At first glance, it appears we failed our mission to control the black king's movements...

If our goal was to keep him on the board's edge, then yes, we have failed that. 

However, if our goal was to chart the quickest route to checkmate, we're right on schedule!

Now it's time for the knight and bishop to team up and use tempo along with their complementary skills to remove escape squares and put our opponent's king back in his place!

And we're back in a familiar position again. 

So how can we get the king closer to the mating square here?

Simple! We'll use our bishop to remove an escape square and then repeat a familiar pattern.

Here's the part where we need to be extra cautious.

We're really close to winning right now.

Our enemy's king can only go back and forth between two squares.

We know our bishop is covering the dark squares and will deliver checkmate. 

Now we have to place our knight where it can attack the light squares and stay out of the way of our bishop.

Do you see the spot we need to put our knight?

That's right, c1!

The fastest way to get there is by moving it to d3 first.

But just like when checkmating with two bishops vs. a king, if we aren't careful, we'll leave him nowhere to run, and it will be a stalemate like this!

So what do we need to do to avoid stalemate?

As usual, you are correct again! Another bishop move to waste a tempo!

Then a beautiful, hard-earned, well-deserved check and checkmate from there!

Put it all together, and it looks like this!

That's checkmate in 20 moves! That gives you 30 moves force your opponent into that position. Trust me that's more than enough to get the job done!

With a bit of practice and many learning opportunities, you'll be able to do it without any trouble before long.

But for the moment, start with this series of moves, then once you've mastered these, move on to the more challenging, less formulaic parts.

Now, you can show off to your friends, family, and club members that you know how to checkmate with a knight and a bishop!

When they ask you how you did it so easily, you can tell them it was because you were smart and spent a few minutes to read a blog that laid it all out step-by-step.

And if you think that's cool, stay tuned for the more advanced endgames yet to come!

Until next time, keep improving, keep learning, and most of all, enjoy every moment!

To catch up on this series on calculation, you can start with part 1, When to Ignore Opening Principles, or browse through the rest of the chapters at your leisure here.

Remember to follow me for updates on the latest content and contest information.

New posts come out daily and you don't want to be the only one to miss out!

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Review - Test Your Skills

How confident are you in your ability to checkmate with two bishops?

Put your skills to the test with this puzzle and find out if you have what it takes or if you need to go back to the previous article to review some tips!

NOTE - Puzzles only allow me to use one variation for solutions. Therefore, when you waste a tempo, pull the light-squared bishop as far back as possible toward the board's edge. 

Good luck!