K + R versus K + N

Recently, I played out a hypothetical game in which one side had a king and rook while the other side had a king and knight. Ultimately, I could not force the weaker side to the edge of the board, and thus, I found no way for checkmate. If anyone has any thoughts or comments (or suggestions for K+N vs. K+R endgames), please post below.

That's a very difficult endgame, but with best play the game could be a draw. I remember a few months back in a game between two grandmasters, both players made a few mistakes, and the side with K+R ended up forcing checkmate.

Yeah, this one is much tougher for the defender than bishop vs rook (at least, it is for me!). The stronger side has a lot more winning chances, and there are a lot more positions that are theoretically won (usually when the king and knight are far apart to start with, I think).

Does anyone else have suggestions about K+R vs. K+N endgames? How does the K+R go about winning?

I tried to search Chessbase for the game. You can try....there's a game between GMs that's commentated a little bit and there's a K+R K+N ending. I think the game was sometime around May or June.

EDIT: Found it. I've included the analysis from the chessbase report.



Kamsky,G (2671) - Bacrot,E (2708)
Mtel Masters Sofia BUL (2), 12.05.2006

75.Kg3 Nd3 76.Rd2 Ne1 77.Rf2+ Kg1 78.Rf8 Ng2 79.Kf3 Kf1?? [79...Nh4+= ] 80.Kg3+? Kg1 81.Kf3 Kf1?? 82.Rf7+- Ne1+ 83.Ke3+ Kg1 84.Ke2 Ng2 85.Rh7 Nf4+ 86.Kf3 Nd3 87.Rh4 Ne5+ 88.Ke2? [88.Ke3 ] 88...Kg2= 89.Re4 Nf7? [89...Nd7 ] 90.Re7!+- Nd6 91.Rg7+ Kh3 92.Kf3 Kh4 93.Kf4 Kh5 94.Re7 Nc4 95.Re6 Nd2 96.Rc6 Nb3 97.Ke3 Kg4 98.Rc4+ Kg3 99.Rc3 Na5 100.Ke4+ Kf2 101.Kd5 Nb7 102.Rb3 Nd8 103.Rb8 1-0

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1411263