Can a bishop and knight win against a stubborn King?

If the king avoids the corner, how hard is it to win if you only have the bishop and knight left?

@blackpoolmad said
If the king avoids the corner, how hard is it to win if you only have the bishop and knight left?

I see you have Game 15476307 in progress.

You're not supposed to ask for help with those.

@blackpoolmad said
If the king avoids the corner, how hard is it to win if you only have the bishop and knight left?

according to the rules of chess, yes a Bishop and Knight can mate a lone king. Is it easy ? only if your opponent makes it easy....

@BigDogg

its not help really, he is asking simply if a knight and bishop can win against a lone king. If he was asking for moves then that would be wrong .. ;-)

@rookorbycrook said
@BigDogg

its not help really, he is asking simply if a knight and bishop can win against a lone king. If he was asking for moves then that would be wrong .. ;-)

The reply could be specific help, quite easily.

He really should not be asking.

There was a time when a mod would have deleted the entire thread within minutes of it being posted.
These days the mods (do we have any?) are not so heavy handed.

Treat a game as you would an OTB game where you cannot go about discussing a game you are playing.

It was innocent enough general question but it really should have been asked after the game was over. No harm done.

Regarding how rare it can happens the following situation cropped up a few times.


White has just played 31.h2-h4+

White came on asking why the system did not stop the game declaring checkmate.
Thread 98583

That one ended peacefully but I recall one thread where a mod warned
everyone not to say anything.

So everyone started dropping hints about en passant and the mod warning them
about discussing a game in progress. People turned on the mod and the insults
started flying about.

The player in question re-appeared and was pointed to FAQ's. They asked why
should they so they were called an idiot. Things really blew up from there.
It went on for days till the whole thread was deleted.

Generally you shouldn't be asking if something can be won or not, but I guess the cat is out of the bag with Bishop, Knight & King vs King, so I guess it is safe to post my little story about this ending.

Many years ago I was playing in a rapid open. I ended up with bishop & knight against a lone king.
My opponent - who I knew - said "well, its a draw. You've only got a few seconds left. You can't checkmate me". I said, "watch and see" and I checkmated him.
He cried out "How did you do that? No really, how did you do that? Show me!"
So I showed him. Once you've been shown the technique it isn't that hard.

A month later at another event he ran up to me and told me that he had ended up with BNK v lone king in a tournament with long time controls, (his opponent simplified down to B+N assuming that no-one would know how to give checkmate) remembered what I had shown him, won the game and won his group.

It is worth learning, partly for the challenge, but also because this rare ending does happen.

I've been telling myself for 21 years to master that checkmate pattern but I never do it.
Eventually I will get around to it.

@bigdogg said
The reply could be specific help, quite easily.

He really should not be asking.

What a clown you are. I bet you've reported me aswell.

@blackpoolmad said
What a clown you are. I bet you've reported me aswell.

Uh-oh. I made black pool mad for calling out his eating-chay.

Learn to play the game with some integrity.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

No, I don't think so.

The community did its job and didn't allow specific help to be given.

Usually, you tell people once not to ask for help with games in progress and they stop doing it.

@blackpoolmad said
If the king avoids the corner, how hard is it to win if you only have the bishop and knight left?

Once you learn how to do it, it is not hard.

Just learning it might be a little tricky.

When I have a lot of material, and the enemy only has his king left, and he doesn't want to resign, then I get myself a horse and a bishop, feed all the rest of my material to his king, and then start mating him with horse and bishop.
Just for the fun of it.