Once I had to force checkmate with King, Knight, and Bishop against a lone king. My opponent did NOT believe in me, and was nonetheless disappointed. More recently, I had to hold the draw with a protected rook pawn on the 7th rank against a lone queen.
Again, the purpose of knowing rare endgames is to be able to salvage draws with creative play, and to make it harder for your more creative opponents from swindling draws from you.
Rook vs Rook and Knight. I ended up winning with the rook
I also had bishop+knight+pawn against rook. I blundered my rook and lost but I think that I could have had a draw by taking the pawn.
I had my e-pawn vs two knights. My opponent didn't want to suffer driving my king into a corner and offered a draw. And I don't know why all the engines in the world say the stronger side wins in positions like that.
You can't checkmate with 2 kights.
You probably haven't heard of Troitsky line.
I had my e-pawn vs two knights. My opponent didn't want to suffer driving my king into a corner and offered a draw. And I don't know why all the engines in the world say the stronger side wins in positions like that.
Normally, 2 knights vs a king is a draw. best the stronger side can do is stalemate.
But if the weaker side has a pawn, the strong side can unblock the pawn, and give his opponent moves to avoid stalemate. and then complete the mating net.
not easy at all though.
Not easy at all, strong grandmasters have failed to find the winning idea.
1) A couple of times I've had B vs R, easy draw from most positions - the simplest way is to head with the king into the opposite corner of your bishop. That way the rook can never give mate without you blundering really badly, because the opponent's king will have to be a knight move away from your own king (to be able to force mate), which means that you can always give check to with your bishop as soon as the rook moves to threaten mate. And ordinary rook checks are covered by the bishop, creating a stalemate forcing black to move his rook away again.
2) After about 1,500 tournament games I recently found myself with K vs K+B+N for the first time in my life. I went into this endgame as my last chance to save the game, having blundered already in the opening. It turned out that my opponent didn't know the pattern by heart, and by then he was playing on his 30s increments. He was unable find the mate quickly enough over the board, I gained the draw through the 50 move rule.
3) One interesting endgame constellation I had was 2R vs 2B+N. The game ended in a draw after a mad time scramble following mutual blunders. On pure "point count" the rooks lead, but typically the light figures best the rooks, being more agile.
4) One of the most fascinating endgames I ever played was this (position after Black's 35th move), White: Kh1, Re1, Rd1, Bf1 p: a3, f3, g3, h2; Black (me): Kg7, Qc8, Ne8 p: a7, b6, e6, f7, g6, h7. May not look exciting, but it's finely balanced, and all hinges on activity. My opponent failed to realize this initially, and played too passively, and I managed to combine a queenside pawn advance with active play on the kingside to win after 65 moves.
I had Q vs 2Bs without pawns in a blitz game against an IM, which should be a theoretical draw, but we were playing on the 3 second increment and he couldn't find the fortress idea and got mated. Our other encounters, I hasten to add, have been less successful for me...
Two queens on each side with both of us having passed pawns on opposite sides of the board. I don't remember the exact position since it was a casual blitz game, but as far as I can recollect the final position was something like this (I was Black):
Unfortunately, we were interrupted and unable to finish the game, and neither of us were able to remember the entire position afterwards.
Here is a wild endgame i got into recently, pretty standard though for me
full game here https://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=189263066
An endgame where I am winning.
Joking aside, I think it is a close contest between Queen vs rook+knight and Knight+Bishop vs queen.
Queen v. 2 bishops with no pawns is a loss for the bishops in most positions. The corner fortress can't be reached most of the time, and the fact that the bishops can't defend each other is a major liability. 2 knights, on the other hand, can hold the draw fairly easily.
i was down a whole queen and a rook and still won with a knight smothered mate; crazy game!
I had a rapid game with a rook and a knight vs a rook. Very difficult to win.
sorry it was actually a rook and knight vs knight
what was the result? @jbent02
I had my e-pawn vs two knights. My opponent didn't want to suffer driving my king into a corner and offered a draw. And I don't know why all the engines in the world say the stronger side wins in positions like that.
You can't checkmate with 2 kights.