K+B+N vs K

I am 73 years old and have never lost to a grandmaster but in over 60 years of chess, have never learned how to do this. It is so rare that I have never needed to learn how to do this.

If you wish to be very good at chess, You really do not need to learn how to do this.  There are far more important things to learn.

[I am not saying not to learn this]

trying to run back doesn't work for black, as the same knight move forces black king back towards the h file anyway. in fact, it leads to a quicker mate.

Yes I know. Just suggestting a practical way to try and defend :-)

and for all who have mentioned how rare this mate is, i know. I just had time to waste (rare considering i'm taking college classes) and decided to look at specific endgames. this came up and i was hooked, so i learned it. now if i ever need it, i can do it.

It is rare, but the knight and bishop coordination can  come up as a middlegame theme - more so in the positions leading up to the diagram where the bishop and knight form a cordon two squares apart.

I think the training in precision is not wasted either.

Agreed. this does require a large amount of precision. and if starting with the same material while the opponent king is still away from the edge, it becomes quite the task to herd him into the corner.

well, if you ended up in this game against me, I would probably win, although getting the opponent to the edge of the board is the hard part, but if i can do it in less than 30 moves, that leaves me enough time to deliver checkmate before the 50 move rule.

And how many GMs have you faced otb ?  

Reb  There is a heck of a lot of chess than just over the board.

 In my last correspondence tournament there was an over the board USCF master who came in 14th place out of 15.

To answer your specific question I have played one over the board grand master and won that game.

In correspondence chess if you look at the top 50 players in the United States, I have played and won from #s2 and 3.  I have not played #1.

The top players in USA correspondence are grandmasters.

I get so tired of over-the-board players who like to put down correspondence players.

I had to stop playing USCF over-the-board [even with a very high performance rating for the  whole year] due to a health problem which made it severely hard to play in over the boards tournaments  [such as the US Open in 1973]  

Why write so much when you could have answered my question with one word : one .  ??    I know there is also correspondence chess  , I played it myself for a couple of decades .  I used to have much more respect for strong correspondence players back before they were using engines for their moves .  Over the years though I met several correspondence players that were much higher rated than me in correspondence but far weaker than me when we met face to face otb . Because of these things I firmly believe that a players OTB rating is a far more accurate indicator of their chess strength/knowledge than any correspondence rating . So in several decades of otb chess you only played 1 GM ?  Thats not surprising as I only played a handful ( 5 or 6 ) in 30 years of US  chess .  I managed to play many more in Europe . 

Looks like GM Alik Zilberberg is # 1  at 2602 in US Correspondence play 

His current OTB rating is 2255 and that rating is from 2002 , he must be worse now . See why I dont think much of correspondence ratings or titles ?  

I suspect if I check the top 10 the results will be similar and a few may not have any otb rating at all . 

GM Daniel M Fleetwood 2578   correspondence 

current OTB rating of 2011 with a floor of 1800 , which means he has never broken 2100 OTB !     Do I need to go on ?  

Here is an even better example : 

GM Jon Ostriker 2553    with a 1791 OTB rating and a floor of 1500 which means he has never broken 1800 otb !    So .... the FACT is that you have B class OTB players making GM in correspondence play !   

The 3 players I listed are # s  1, 3 and 6  in US Correspondence play and # 6 is a B class player OTB ... I rest my case . 

Reb     Why should he be worse now?  He is probably better.  

But in any event your lack of respect for correspondence players is obvious.

Maybe, I should have no respect for over the board players since when I changed from over the board I was  already playing at more than 2400 strength?  [and I became a stronger player after that]

But the point is not to disparage me or anyone else because of your disdain for another kind of chess. [or two other kinds of chess.]

In the preliminary rounds of the USA Correspondence Chess Championship when I played--all the players had to be masters or experts. To get to the Finals you had to score best out of maybe 15 masters and experts in the section you were in.

I once saw a strong USCF master [around 2400] enter a section I was in --in correspondence chess. I won in about 9 moves. 

What is my point?-do not disparage other types of slow play chess.[or other players]

How can anyone have respect for a form of chess in which a B class player (OTB) can be a GM and # 6 in the USA ?!  What are you smoking ?!  Why is he probably weaker now than 12 years ago ? He is older and from his uscf id# I suspect he's a senior like us and your chess strength declines as you age ... DUH  I dont care what strength you think you were playing at when you left otb ponz , FACTS matter to me , not what you think ! The FACT is your best OTB rating never broke 2200 .  Live with it .  Mine never broke 2300 and I can / do live with that .  

Did you ever consider that many correspondence players started playing correspondence very early and before they had a strong over the board rating?

Just one example would be me. I had a low 2188 USCF rating and then did not play for 42 years.  However playing correspondence chess, I got a heck of a lot better than 2188 [or even 2438 which was my playing strength when I stopped playing over the board]

Zilberberg was born 1937 so I am sure he is weaker now than he was in 2002 in OTB play .... in fact his records show his otb rating/results were in steady decline just before he quit OTB chess . Ofcourse in Correspondence age doesnt matter as much since the computer is doing most ( if not all ) the work anyway . 

Ponz , in OTB chess you have never been close to 2400 strength except in your mind . I havent either . I have beaten a few GMs too in OTB play and several IMs and many FMs but I still havent broke 2300 OTB . I can accept/live with that and you should try to do the same .  If a B class player can be GM in correspondence I wonder why you havent made GM in correspondence ?  

This ending is basic. Even at 1429 USCF I don't have to think really at all to do it.