Play it out in the Nalimov Tablebase. I cant find a position where it should take longer than 20 moves.
But you are correct, it's not obvious
Bishop + Rook vs. Knight end game. Not as simple as I thought.
Sort:
Vs knight for sure will have those annoying zugzwang moves -- if your opponent is all defended and happy, just cover more squares or make a waiting move, eventually he'll fall apart :)
And that is why knights are the best chess pieces ever, they can stand up to a Rook + Bishop.. of course not beat them but they can stand up to them!
I know that in some cases it is possible to force a checkmate in a Rook Vs. Knight endgame, but it never occurred to me that a Bishop + Rook Vs. Knight endgame was not obvious. Ideally I want to corner the knight, but I can't isolate it from the king!!