One 1800 was playing a 1600 in a must-win game. I witnessed it. The 1600, with a wide smile, claimed the 50-move rule in the B + N vs. K position. And yet, I still haven't learned it.
Should i learn the bishop and knight vs king checkmate?
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There's a 1600 FIDE at my club who knows it, and a 2265 who doesn't.
I recently learned the Bishop + Knight checkmate. It was tricky at first but it's really fun once you've mastered it. I watched ChessNetwork's video as well as Simon Williams' videos.
chessvideos.tv is good for practicing the "W tecnique" while the computer at lichess is good for practicing the "Triangle method". You should know both well so you know what to do no matter how your opponent defends.
I think it's worth learning just because it's fun. Even if you never actually use it in a game you can still pick up some useful patterns.
It's fairly easy but what its occurrence? Quite low. You should be learning some practical endings first.
The Deletang method (using triangular geometrical motifs) is the one projected in Averbakh's endgame book. It's not the fastest, but the simplest to understand.
The content is more or less the same with #22.
thx for the links, enjoyed Jerry's smooth and easy presentation
and Majnu's too, thx
really depends on whether the bishop and knight are in the same color. If they are opposite colors, then it is technically a draw.
I have spent many hours practicing and studying this as a matter of chess pride. Most of the moves can be remembered/worked out, but there are subtles that are best remembered. I saw a recent county chess games where the superior player rated in the 180's ECF failed to convert and made the same error as the women's world champion.
The "Pan Book Of Chess" contains quite a detailed analysis of this ending. It would not be easy to find Ne7 over the board with the clock ticking.
Most texts give the "mainline" as where the weaker king clings to the back rank and doggedly tried to run back to the opposite corner of the bishop. This certainly make the necessary number of moves greater , BUT IMO the defending side should best test his opponents method by going towards the corner he doesn't want to end up in and trying to make a run for the centre.
I have to admit the only time I actually saw this over the board was last week after over forty years of play ! Having said that, the bishop and knight coordination pattern can crop up in middlegames.
Yes, piece coordination has been mentioned by Capablanca, as well as the fact that many players' weakest point is their inability to create piece harmony, or piece coordination, but that's another pair of shoes, the same motif can be found in more practical endgames.
fishyvishy wrote:
really depends on whether the bishop and knight are in the same color. If they are opposite colors, then it is technically a draw.
Where I can find this theory about same coloured knights? 
This ought to be a "technical draw", right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAKrBG-zk2s
Practical endings.
The bishop is usually stronger than the knight when there is absence of pawns in the center.
http://www.chess-insights.com/mating-with-bishop-and-knight.html
It's fairly well explained here as well.
Ziggy_Zugzwang wrote:
The "Pan Book Of Chess" contains quite a detailed analysis of this ending. It would not be easy to find Ne7 over the board with the clock ticking.
I have to admit the only time I actually saw this over the board was last week after over forty years of play ! Having said that, the bishop and knight coordination pattern can crop up in middlegames.
Thats exactly how I did it... I'm happy about that. Yes I agree Ne7 is hard to see, but it's more like the whole Nd5-Kd6-Ne7-Be3 combination is hard to see because at first it looks like the King is getting away. I would say that Kd6, whilst being a logical move is the hardest move to get your head around, because you can see that it by itself isn't stopping anything. I saw the Be3 Ne7 combination without any problem and then worked backwards to make it work with Kd6. That was the only maneuver that gave me any problems. I would have been saved 20 minutes and one failed attempt if I had known that the position immediately before this maneuver was correct...
May 27, 2016
0
#35
that would be the exact same video i posted a link to beforehand...
You can practice over the internet, there's an engine playing against you this sort of ending, I just did and won the game in 35 moves.
May 27, 2016
0
#37
Yes it teaches you how to coordinate the bishop and knight which is knowledge that is applicable to all stages of the game.
yes
PLAYtoWINtheGAME wrote:
So I am rated about 1700 between online and regular games. I have made it a goal to start improving my skill by taking advantage of the drills, lessons, videos, etc... So I mastered the 2 bishop endgame recently. Now I have tried the bishop and knight checkmate. But it seems to be exceptionally hard for me. Do you guys think it is a waste of time and my time could be utilized better studying different things, or is it a good idea to try to get this pattern down?
It is not a waste of time imo but the ending is very rare indeed . In more than 40 years of tourney chess I have only had this ending once and have never had an ending where I had to mate with the 2 bishops , also rare it seems . Your study time is likely better spent on other more common endings though , like rook endings which are the most common and also so difficult that even professional players often make mistakes in them . I have studied both the 3 triangles method that I see mentioned here and the W method which I use and understand better for some reason . You should look at both and see which you grasp better . Here is a video with the W method explained : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWwuy-aiK1M
May 27, 2016
0
#40
Christopher800 wrote:
Yes it teaches you how to coordinate the bishop and knight which is knowledge that is applicable to all stages of the game.
If I remember correctly GM Susan Polgar gave the exact same advice in one of her two tactics books.
Her sister GM Judit Polgar was kind enough to demonstrate the technique once in a blindfold match!
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1092636
It's worth try to learning it I think. After all, it is a forced win, so you must be able to finish it. Taking a look at it a couple of times a week won't bother too much the rest of your chess development. And btw, the K+2B vs. K endgame you already mastered is much more rare in practice.