Bishop, Knight & King versus King.

I learned it and carried it out in a game. But have probably forgotten it now.

See http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/survey-how-do-you-treat-non-resigners

I think we have spoiled a little the thread 

I've been in BNK vs. K thirteen times. I've won on time, drawn on time, and lost on time. The only time the mate was executed was this artificial situation employing underpromotion.

Thirteen sounds like a lot compared to the none that Silman mentions in Silman's Complete Endgame Course, unless you take into account that these thirteen are from a collection of 50,000+ online games, mostly blitz (bullet games do not find their way into this database).

As a youth chess coach, I developed a curriculum/award system emphasizing checkmate and tactical skills. When I first created it, I tried teaching this minor piece checkmate. I've replaced that with the Lucena and Philidor positions. Rook endgames are a feature of every tournament, and immensely practical.

I wouldn't ever seek to embarrass my  opponent, but if he or she feels a need to play on as if the result is in doubt or in order to learn something, I would prefer to use the opportunity to practice minor piece checkmates. Nevertheless, I have more often brought two brides into the game, which leads to rapid mating.

The main trick to this ending is 'building the box' and then shrinking it to force the lone king into the right corner.

Thankyou to all.

I encountered this situation today. I only won because I had way more time than my opponent:

As you can see, I have no solid idea on how to do this. The only thing I could think of was to try and corner the king.

Perhaps the right idea, but the wrong corner. 

This was a 10/0 game.

Oh yeah...

bump

I'm practicing this elementary checkmate again, and showing it to my students.

My play is not perfect, but I move within a few seconds. The plan is to be able to execute this checkmate OTB usining only the time delay.

If people read about the w theory that was written in mueller and lamperts endgame manual this is fairly easy.

This ending is very rare . In over 40 years of tournament chess I have only had this ending once .  I have never had the ending of K , B ,B  v lone K .

Do you think one reason could be your higher level of play. Positions are won, lost or drawn considerably sooner than a lower level blitz player who plays to the very end hoping for a mistake and sometimes gets it?

No, I don't think that makes sense - higher-level games are usually "closer." A lower-rated game is more likely to feature early blunders or a more lop-sided affair, and this the chances for an endgame like this would be lower for lower-rated players.

IT seems to me that if lower rated players are likely to make early blunders leading to a more lop-sided affair, then the chances of this happening for lower rated games would increase.

Even strong players are usually weak at the beginning.

This ending is indeed very rare. Not only have I never had it personally but I very rarely see it in other peoples games. Right now I can only remember one instance when this ending arouse in a tournament I was participating. Maybe I'm forgetting some other cases but it's definitely not common.

I know how to checkmate with a B and N. Not that hard.

MuhammadAreez10 wrote: