Minor Pieces Endings

Checkmating with Bishop & Knight
(Basic position) 


To deliver the checkmate with Knight an Bishop is probably the most difficult mating pattern. There are several basic knowledge which should be known by heart. First, you can mate the defending King only in the corner of the same colour as is your Bishop. It means, that for light-squared Bishop you can deliver the mate only on square a8 or h1. The defending King will be manoeuvring in the centre or if forced then he will try to escape in the corner of opposite colour of your Bishop.  Come what may, the first step of our plan is to achieve the diagram position. The basic position. Black King has got only two squares available, e8 and g8. First White's move restricts Black King’s movement even more. 

From the diagram position, according to Reuben Fine, you can deliver the mate in 18 moves. If you computer program like Fritz for instance, than you can practise against the engine. There is a ending training module and there are two positions for this mating pattern. Practise as much as you can and first try to master the mate from this position.


Situation can be little bit more complex when the White pieces are less well coordinated. But you will see that once we have achieved the "basic position" than it is easy. Lets have a look at following example:
 

One of the most difficult positions for mating with Bishop and Knight is following position where the White pieces are very poorly coordinated. However, again we try to achieve our "basic position" and we know well that from that position we need 18 moves at maximum.









A Typical Positional Advantage
Solution

Prokop F.J., 1953

1.Bf4!!

[1.Be5 Kg5! -/+;

1.Bd6? Re4! 2.Bf4 Re2 3.b4 Rxg2+!=]

1...Rxf4 

[1...Rxb2? 2.Be5 Rb6 3.Bc7 Rf6 4.Bf4!+- (4.Bd8 Kg5=) 4...Rg6 5.g3++-]

2.g3+ Kg5 3.h4+!! 

[3.gxf4+ Kxf4 4.h4 (4.Kg2 Ke3 5.Kf1=) 4...Ke4 5.Kg2 Ke3 6.Kf1 Kd4 7.Ke2 Ke4=]

3...Kg4 4.gxf4 Kxf4 5.Kg2! Ke3!

[5...Ke4 6.b4 Kd4 7.Kf3 Kc4 8.Kf4 Kxb4 9.Kxf5 Kc5 10.Kg5 Kd6 11.Kf6 Kd7 12.Kf7 Kd8 13.Kg6 Ke7 14.Kxh5 Kf7 15.Kh6 Kg8=]

6.Kf1! f4 7.b3!!

[7.b4? Kd4 8.Kf2 Kc4 9.Kf3 Kxb4 10.Kxf4 Kc5! 11.Kg5 Kd6!]

7...Kf3 8.b4! Ke4 9.Ke2+-         1-0

So this is genuine author's solution. However, there is another line, which was probably overlooked.

1.Bf4 Rxf4! 2.g3+ Kg5 3.h4+ Rxh4+!!

Black is returning the material for a positional concession!

4.gxh4+ Kf4 5.b4 Ke4 6.b5 Kd5 7.Kg3 Kc5 8.Kf4 Kxb5 9.Kxf5 Kc6 10.Kg5 Kd7 11.Kxh5 Ke8 12.Kh6 Kf8 13.Kh7 Kf7 14.h5 Kf8 15.h6          ½ : ½