Is the king and bishop checkmate? Checkmate with knight and bishop - online chess training

Is it possible to checkmate with a king and a bishop?

"It is forbidden!" - you will say with confidence. And you will be right if you make the right reservation.

"Can!" And here you are right under certain conditions.

Let's look at these simple nuances.

When is it impossible to checkmate?

Everything is very simple. If there are no other pieces except kings and bishops, it is impossible to checkmate. A mating position cannot occur on the board even with the best wishes of both sides.

They simply do not exist in the nature of chess. Just arrange the pieces and try.

When is it possible to checkmate?

The first and main condition:

1. The presence of at least one piece in the opponent’s camp, except for the king

For example:

Please note that this position can only be obtained through the joint efforts of both parties)

Hence the second condition:

2. Erroneous play by the opponent

White plays 1.Bh3, attacking the horse.

1...Nf4??

The phrase “The best defense is attack” does not apply to this case)

2. Bd7X

And one more condition:

3. Poor arrangement of figures

For example:

The position of mutual zugzwang is already familiar to us. Despite the huge material advantage, Black drove his king so unsuccessfully that with his move he gets mate with a bishop or pawn in all variations.

For example 1...Qf2 2.Be5! Qe1 (2...g4 3.Cf6X) 3.g3+ Q:g3 4.C:g3X

Endgame paradoxes

Let's compare the two positions:

Here White has an extra piece and a pawn. It would seem quite enough for victory.

However, there are nuances. More precisely a nuance. It is impossible to queen a pawn. The black king has locked himself in a corner and it is not possible to smoke him out. He simply moves from h8 to g7 and back. There is also no checkmate, only a stalemate. Draw

And in the next position the pawn is black and advanced almost to the promotion square, but black may end up in a mating position.

In positions like these, the color of the corner box is key. . If this square is the color of the bishop, checkmate is also possible, as in the previous example, or simply pushing the king out of the corner.

What is the result if time is overdue?

In conclusion, there are a number of points that are of practical importance and related to time.

• In the position of king and bishop against the king without other pieces, a draw will be immediately recorded. Even if someone is overdue. Because checkmate is impossible.
• But in the position of White’s king and bishop against Black’s king and pawn, if White runs out of time, they will be counted as losing in all cases. Because theoretically a pawn can be promoted to queen.
• If, in the same situation, Black ran out of time, a draw is recorded in all cases, except for the position in which the extreme pawn and the corner square are the color of the bishop. Checkmate is theoretically possible here, as in the diagram above.

In a practical game, it is important to keep these nuances in mind so as not to lose points literally out of the blue.

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The bishop and knight, with the help of the king, checkmate the opponent's king, but this task is not very simple. Anyone who does not know the checkmate procedure will fail in this task. It's very difficult to understand the board. This ending is quite rare, but if you do get it and you can’t checkmate, it will be very disappointing. It is better to pay a little attention to this component so as not to get into trouble later.

The story of the Kyiv master Polyak, who was unable to checkmate within the allotted 50 moves, is widely known. His comrades asked him why he didn’t drive the king to the right corner, to which he replied that he did, but he didn’t go there. Indeed, when pushing the king into the desired corner, difficulties arise; you need to know the position of the harmonious interaction of the pieces. The king of the weaker side constantly strives to break out of the “nets”. The knight, bishop and king can only cut off the opponent's king on a certain part of the board with perfect cooperation. Before starting to consider the checkmate procedure, I will note that the unfortunate master Polyak is not the only one who could not checkmate. This task turned out to be beyond the capabilities of the Women's World Champion Anna Ushenina; she did not checkmate Olga Girya, who in her time set a similar checkmate. There are a lot of such curiosities! From time to time they are found in practice, grandmasters, masters, candidates for master of sports. So that you don’t have such oddities, go through this material and master it!

Remember a few truths right away! Checkmate is only possible in the bishop-colored corner (the king of the weaker side usually runs to the other corner). When checkmating, the king must be within the knight's jump distance from the corner of the board.

First, let's look at the simplest examples in which the king is already in the corner of the board.

Now you know what position you need to strive for. Now let's look at the whole plan as a whole. To achieve checkmate, White has to go through a long and difficult path, which can be divided into 3 stages:

1) pushing the black king from the center to the edge of the board;

2) pushing it to one of the bishop-colored corners (in this example, these are corners a1 or h8);

3) direct matting.

Already in achieving the immediate goal, you must use the help of your king.

To remember the material well, practice. Arrange an arbitrary position and mate the king. You can play with the computer or with your friend-partner. Remember that checkmate must be achieved within 50 moves! Good luck!

Good day to you, dear friend!

In the previous article, we looked at how to checkmate a king with two bishops. The task of checkmate with a knight and bishop in chess will be more difficult. There are many examples where even masters could not cope with this task in 50 moves. So be patient.

Difference from checkmate by two bishops

The main difference is that checkmate can only be placed in the elephant-colored corner. There are two of them, not four, as in the situation with two elephants.

The number of moves required to checkmate with a knight and bishop is close to the threshold value of 50 moves (see the article about the 50-move rule). If the game is played correctly, checkmate can be achieved in no more than 33 moves.

For comparison, checkmate with bishops takes 18 moves. That is, the reserve for “futile maneuvers” in a knight + bishop situation is not so great.

Rules and conditions for checkmate with knight and bishop

The first two conditions are similar to the situation of checkmate by two bishops:

1. Your king must be on one of the following squares:

2. The opponent's king must be in one of two bishop-colored corners or on adjacent squares:

3. The process itself includes the following tasks:

• Push the king to the outer line
• Drive the king into the bishop-colored corner
• Checkmate

Examples of swearing

Checkmate can be delivered by either a knight or an elephant:

1.Bg7+ Kg8 2.Ke7 mate

And an elephant:

1.Ka6+ Kra8 2.Ss6 mat

These are precise positions that are important to remember and strive for.

What to do if the angle is “wrong”?

Typically, the opponent's king will run to a corner that does not match the color of the bishop. The task is to “smoke” him out of there and “drive” him to the elephant-colored corner. How this can be done is given in the example below.

In general, if the opponent plays correctly, this situation will always arise. So, we can consider this part of the algorithm.

Example

Now the whole process. Let's set a random position:

1. Kb2 Ks4 2.Kd2 Kd4 3.Bf6+ Ke4 4.Kd3 Kf5 5.Cd4 Ke4 6.Nd2+Kd5 7.Kd3

First key position . The black king begins to retreat.

7...Kd6 8.Ke4 Ke6 9.Ks4 Ke7 10.Kf5

We push back from the side of the king's flank so that he does not escape through this flank.

10...Kd7 11.Ke5 Kd6 12.Nd6 Kd7 13Kd5 Kd7 14.Bf6 Kd7 15.Kb5

The king must retreat to the last line.

15...Ks8 16.Ks6 Kb8 17.Cd4+Kb8 19.Bb6 Ks8 20.Ca7!

Key position #2 . White begins to drive the black king to the corner the color of his bishop.

20...Kd8 21.Kd5 Ke8 (21...Kd8 22.Ke7+ Kd8 23.Ke6) 22.Kd6 Kf7 23.Ke7! Kf6 24.Ce3!

Key position #3 . It would seem that the black king is breaking out, but that was not the case.

24...Kf7 25.Cd4 Ke8 26.Ke6 Kd8 27.Bb6+ Ke8 28.Nf5 Kf8 29.Cd4 Ke8 30.Bf6 Kf8 31.Ce7+ Kg8 32.Kf6

We're almost there. The king is in the right corner, all that remains is to checkmate.

32...Kh7 33.Kf7 Kh8 34.Kg6 Kg8 35.Kh6+ Kh8 36.Cf6 checkmate.

It turned out to be a little more than 33 moves, but we met the limit of 50 with a margin.

Common mistake

A typical mistake is not knowing in which corner to checkmate. Fruitless attempts to checkmate where it is impossible will bring a smile to everyone around you. Except for the player himself.

An even bigger mistake is to “give up” , when the king ended up in the corner of the wrong color. The chess player becomes frustrated and “quits playing.” Meanwhile, finding the king in the corner of the wrong color is part of the plan! We have just looked at an example.

Finally:

As you can see, checkmate with a knight and bishop is not so easy. However, with the help of training you can improve your skills. Another question is: is it necessary to do this?

The problem is the same as what I wrote about in the article about: position in a real game arises extremely rarely. Whether there will be an “output” from your preparation in the form of points in the standings is a big question.

I would recommend learn the basic rules of checkmate with a knight and bishop, key positions and sequence of actions . It is advisable to checkmate the computer a couple of times. It is not necessary to cram everything. You'll forget anyway.

However, I don’t insist. The choice of creative paths in chess is yours.

Thank you for your interest in the article.

If you found it useful, please do the following:

1. Share with your friends by clicking on the social media buttons.
2. Write a comment (at the bottom of the page)
3. Subscribe to blog updates (form under the social media buttons) and receive articles in your email.

Have a nice day!

Today we will look at checkmate with Knight and Bishop. This position was well studied by Philidor, a very long time ago, in 1749. This is not the most common checkmate, it occurs once in 5000 games, but you need to know how to use the knight and bishop together.

I came across many textbooks that described how to checkmate a lone king using a knight and a bishop, but it was impossible to master this technique. The movements were shown there, some explanations were given and it seemed that you could do it yourself. But when you try to do this, nothing works.

The problem is that there is no definitive manual for this type of swearing, at least I couldn't find one. This is the main reason why I am writing this and you are (hopefully) reading this. I have systematically presented the known information and created an algorithm that will help you checkmate using the triangle method.

I promise you will be able to checkmate the lonely king with Bishop and Knight after you read and understand the material. Why is this difficult, you ask? Because sometimes even grandmasters are not able to do this in fifty moves!

Below is an example of how I played against Deep Fritz 14 (ELO 3150+). If you can beat the computer in this ending, then beating a human will not be difficult.

Idea No. 1

The only way to checkmate with these pieces is to drive the opponent's king into the correct corner, namely the corner whose color matches the color of your bishop. Therefore, if you white squared bishop, You need to corner the king a8 or angle h1, which are the white corners.

Idea No. 2

The safest place for a king is corner of opposite color, so the main difficulty is to force him to leave the wrong corner and go to the right corner.

Idea No. 3

Let's try to checkmate a program with a rating of 3150 using a knight and a bishop. The first step is to drive the opponent's king into a corner with the wrong color.

Idea #4

Divide the chessboard into three triangles: a large triangle, a middle triangle and a small triangle. They are circled green, blue And red color. In the diagram below, Black's king is inside a large triangle. As you already know, the only way to checkmate this king is to force him to move to the light square a8 (or h8) if we have a light square bishop. We force the opponent's king to move from the large triangle to the middle triangle, and then to the small triangle, where he will be checkmated.

Look at Big triangle. The black king cannot escape and is limited to only 8 squares. The elephant is located on ideal field. The ideal field is on the diagonal (side of the triangle), one field above the corner: b3 or f7. The horse is also located on an ideal field. An ideal field for a horse - d3, it should be in the same horizontal line as the bishop, but one field further.

Why did I call these fields ideal? When the knight and bishop are placed on ideal squares, they form a wall through which Black's king cannot break through.

Red crosses indicate fields that are under White's control.

We forced Black's king to move to the Middle Triangle. The main idea is that the bishop is now on a new ideal square d7, which is located on the side of the triangle, at a distance of one field from the edge of the board. The knight is also on the new ideal square d5, on the same vertical or horizontal as the bishop, but at a distance of one field. The white king is below and pushes the black king into the Small Triangle. Black's king is limited to 6 squares.

We're almost done. Black's king is now inside the Small Triangle and is limited to just 2 fields. You can checkmate in 2 moves. Everything should work out.

I hope my analysis was useful and you figured out how to checkmate a king with a Knight and Bishop. I recommend getting some practice by playing against the computer. You will gain confidence after being able to repeatedly defeat Rybka, Fritz, Gooddini, etc. Just set a random position and try to drive the King into the right corner. You can watch the game several times and read comments and “ideas” to hone the algorithm. I know it works because... I did it myself. Write about your successes in the comments.

When the endgame comes and the opponent has only one king on the board, there is only one step left to victory - checkmate. However, it is not always possible to checkmate so easily and the chance of winning depends on the remaining pieces of the strong side. Bringing the endgame to victory with only a bishop and a knight in your arsenal is the most difficult task. This article will look at a strategy for mating the opponent's lone king with a knight and bishop, as well as comparing the position with other combinations.

Checkmate of the Lonely King

Checkmate is not always achieved at the opening stage and the game often goes into an endgame, which ultimately leads to the loss of all the pieces of one of the sides. And here the task is to mate the king. It is necessary to take into account that the task is complicated by FIDE rules:

• After 50 moves that did not lead to changes (loss of pieces or checkmate) in the game, a draw is declared
• If the combination is repeated three times, it is also declared a draw.
• Possibility of stalemate

In any endgame, as expected, the king of the strong side actively participates in the checkmate of a single king. The difficulty of winning also depends on the number and quality of the remaining pieces. Regardless of the initial position of the lone king, checkmate in 50 moves is achieved if the following pieces are present:

• Queen
• Rooks
• Bishop and knight
• Or having more pieces than your opponent

Therefore, answering the question, is it possible to checkmate with a bishop and a knight? Yes, it is possible, however, this option is the most difficult, which even qualified arresters cannot always implement.

How to checkmate with a knight and bishop

The algorithm for achieving checkmate includes solving several problems:

• Space limitation
• Cornered
• Declaration of checkmate

Below we will consider in more detail the algorithm for checkmate with a knight and bishop.

Space limitation

When there is a lone king left on the board against the opponent's king, bishop and knight, the action plan of both sides is focused on the center of the field, only with a different task:

• The stronger side needs to limit the space of the king, pushing him away from the center
• The weak side, on the contrary, needs to stay in the center of the field as long as possible.

A lone king is not able to match the centralized power of several pieces and will be forced to retreat from the center within 10 moves.

However, an experienced chess player, playing with the weak side, will always strive for a corner that does not meet the requirements for checkmate, thereby protecting his king. Transferring a lone king to the required corner is quite simple:

Let's say that on the fourth move Black decided to hold the king longer in the area of ​​the h8 corner, in this case:

1. …Kr f8
2. K d7+ K e8
3. Kp e6 Kp d8
4. Kr d6 Kr s8
5. With g6+ K d8
6. C f7 K c8
7. K c5 and further according to the above algorithm.

Ultimately, the forced relocation of the lonely king to the desired corner will be achieved.

Cornered

It is necessary to take into account that checkmate is possible only in the corner, which is in the area where the bishop hits:

• If there is a light-squared bishop, the opponent's king is driven into the a8 or h1 corner
• If the bishop is dark-squared, then the drive is carried out to squares a1 or h8

The strategy is to gradually move the king towards the edge of the board with the bishop, supported by the king. The knight performs the task of blocking the moves of the king of the weak side to safe squares that are inaccessible to the bishop.

You can more clearly see how a knight and bishop reach checkmate by watching the video below.

Comparison of combinations

For a visual comparison and assessment of the complexity of playing an endgame with a bishop and a knight, let's look at other combinations of mating a single king.

Checkmate with rook and king

Is it possible to checkmate with a rook and king? Yes, of course, one rook is enough for this.

How to checkmate with a rook and king? The method of reducing space with the rook, forcing the lone king to retreat to the edge of the board. In this case, the king of the strong side blocks the exit to the center for the lone king.

This strategy is relevant regardless of the initial position of the pieces, therefore, when a chess player asks the question “how to checkmate with a rook and king?”, no difficulties arise.

Checkmate with queen and king

How to checkmate with queen and king? Exactly the same algorithm as the rook and king. At the same time, the limitation of the space of a lone king is reduced easier and faster, but a stalemate should be avoided.

Therefore, when the question arises “how to checkmate the queen and king?”, the chess player proceeds from the strategy of reducing space for the lone king.

Checkmate with a queen is the simplest task and even a beginner knows the answer to the question “is it possible to checkmate with a queen and king?”

From this it should be noted that checkmate with a knight and bishop is quite a difficult task compared to other combinations, but it can be done, regardless of the initial position of the pieces on the board.

To achieve checkmate, regardless of the initial position of the pieces, 35 moves are enough.

Again, any wrong move will allow the king of the weak side to return closer to the center, and achieving checkmate will take 4-5 extra moves. You should be careful and patient so as not to make mistakes, because only 50 moves are allotted for checkmate.

Things to consider

When it comes to reaching checkmate with a knight and bishop, there are several rules to consider:

• An unmistakable tactic completes the endgame in 33 moves;
• The lone king is driven only into a corner with a square whose color matches the color of the bishop.

To hone your skill in mating a king with a knight and bishop, you need more practice:

• Playing a combination with a partner. A more experienced chess player will be able to point out mistakes when reaching checkmate and offer solutions.
• Working out a prank with a computer. The software does not provide proper training, but it will not miss any possible moves and thus make it more difficult to achieve checkmate. When playing against a more difficult opponent, more advanced skills are achieved.

After studying the checkmate algorithm and working out the strategy in practice, completing any endgame with the opponent's lone king will become an easy task.