Checkmating with two minors

I once had a position where I was a KRBN vs KR and a few pawns. I decided to trade rooks. My opponent happily accepted the trade, thinking that I didn't know the mate. I picked off the pawns, and I started grinding. I won and after the game, my dad who was watching the game told me that a player watching the game after seeing my first few moves said to him "he doesn't know it". Little did he know he thought he knew I didn';t know but I didn;t know he thoguht I didn;t know knowing that I did know.

Thank you for your comment, Ms complicated 

novice player, first time here. I choose puzzles and am unable to solve all moves are marked incorrect.Where does on find answers ?

I got BN v. lone king in a game. Happy/proud that I spent the 15min to learn the pattern beforehand (if you're looking for practice, the "drills" section has many basic checkmates).

I got a BB vs lone king game about a month ago. I've had that ending a few times in my online games.

@jovial_adversary all around strange and fun game! Wish they would have let you finish it

I remember that game being extremely complicated. I was worried about 41. Rf7+, winning the bishop, but I thought that maybe I could have drawn that position with the bishop being able to secure itself somehow on my remaining pawns. I would have been worse, for sure though, and I'll bet that there were some winning ideas there, maybe sacraficing the exchange back to win a pawn. Luckily, my opponent missed that idea. I couldn't believe my luck!

My opponent had offered me a draw when it got to the pure BB plus lone King ending. I of course declined, reminding them that I was now winning.

I think that this ending is much easier than the BN and King vs lone King ending. Capablanca describes the steps for the two bishops ending very well in his excellent book Chess Fundamentals. 

As for BN and King vs lone King, I still haven't even come close to mastering that one yet. I am impressed that someone could understand the correct method after just drilling it for 15 minutes!  

It's a mate in 1 in the final position. My opponent let the time run out.

Pretty sure you can't mention lichess.org on chess.com ( I put it in white font) highlight it to see what it reads.I

True, and I would play out Q vs. R with the rook in case my opponent didn't know it.  (In practice, humans struggle to win with the queen against the best defense, but humans struggle to defend with the rook, so in a practical game it's probably still a win for the queen usually).

Top GMs seem to be able to defend RB vs. R well most of the time -- I've seen Ding Liren do it once or twice against other top GMs where he never stepped into any real danger.  However, I've also seen GM Erwin L'Ami lose the easier RN vs. R against Carlsen -- it's definitely not simple.

For myself, I don't think I've ever had either side of Q vs. R, RB vs. R, or RN vs. R in a game.  I've had KBN vs. K once, and I did win it.

@jovial_adversary This is a pretty good video that shows the so-called "triangle method" which is what makes the most sense to me (it isn't the fastest, I've tried against the computer and managed to get it in 50 moves most of the time though). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3EqM17jvOc&ab_channel=ChessNetwork

The B+N method I use is:

1. Push the king towards the edge (20 moves at most)

2. Get one of these positions: (10 moves at most, second is faster to mate but possibly harder to obtain)

3. Do the following algorithm: (19 moves at most)

TOTAL: 49 moves

Nice

I can do 2 bishops and I think I can do a bishop and a knight (although I’ve never gotten the chance to do so in a serious game)

Pro tipp: practice KBN-K against a random-mover engine. It proves harder than a "real" engine because the latter allows you to use your well-known schemes.

Nice

It is actually quite common for GMs and IMs to fail to execute the K+B checkmate during the Titled Tuesday.