Friday, August 10, 2007

Bishop & Knight Mate

Emboldened by a blog entry and a lecture from chesslectures.com, I relearned the Bishop & Knight vs King mate.

The steps to this mate are simple:
  1. Push the enemy king to the edge of the board.
  2. Force him to the correct corner.
  3. Mate him.

You must force the enemy king into the corner that's the same color as your bishop to mate him. Mostly, you simply take away his safe squares one by one.

The scary part is, to force him into the corner, you must allow the enemy king to leave the edge of the board for a few moves, risking escape! Watch moves 8-12 carefully.





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[Event "Bishop & Knight Mate"]
[Date "2007.08.10"]
[White "likesforests"]
[Black "Nalimov"]
[Result "1-0"]
[FEN "1k6/8/1K1N4/6B1/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
1. Kc6 Ka7 2.Nb5+ Kb8 3. Nc7 Kc8 4. Be3 Kb8 5. Bd4 Kc8 6. Ba7 Kd8 7. Nd5 Ke8 8. Bd4 Kf7 9.Nf4 Ke7 10. Kc7 Ke8 11. Bf6 Kf7 12. Bg5 Ke8 13. Kd6 Kf7 14. Kd7 Kf8 15. Ke6 Ke8 16. Nh5 Kf8 17. Be7+ Kg8 18. Kf6 Kh7 19. Bf8 Kg8 20. Ke7 Kh7 21. Kf7 Kh8 22. Bg7+ Kh7 23. Nf6#

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As you have seen on my chess lessons blog I have written three posts about this endgame, each dealing with one of these three steps.

Anonymous said...

A group of friends and I are offering free personal chess training on topics such as this one. We create these positions on the board and then higher rated players will work through these problem with their students.

If anyone is interest message "petrovitch" on www.redhotpawn.com

It's free, and it works! We reference websites like this to help you find the answers to your problems.

Unknown said...

There is a faster Mate for white than the one shown above. On move 8 white should:
8.Kd6 Kf7
9.Ne7 Kf6
10.Be3 Kf7
11.Bg5 Ke8
12.Ng6 Kf7
13.Ne5+ Ke8 (I have heard this position called the Lock as black is now locked in the corner with the bishop of the same color)
14.Kc7 Kf8
15.Kd7 Kg7
16.Ke7 Kg8
17.Bh6 Kh7
18.Bf8 Kg8
19.Ng4 Kh7
20.Kf7 Kh8
21.Bg7+ Kh7
22.Nf6 mate