>I've encountered this ending a few times and I don't find it too hard. I may not do it the quickest or most efficient way, but I can get the job done. I also insist that the young kids, whom I teach, learn this ending. It takes them a while, but eventually they understand it.
>I've never seen the K + B + N vs. K ending arise in 40 years of playing chess. From time to time, I review it because it's a good exercise. It's not easy and if you're not careful, the 50-move draw rule can kick in. However, if you know what you're doing, you should be able to do it in less than 40 moves from any conceivable position.
I'm surprised you found mating with two bishops difficult. It's pretty intuitive and most players could probably work it out over the board in a real game.
Bishop and knight is a different proposition altogether.
I've seen KBN vs K twice in real games. The first time was between two fairly weak players. The game was adjudicated and a strong player showed the player with the bishop and knight enough to do the job from her particular position before the game resumed. The second time was between two IMs and the IM with the bishop and knight did the job in about thirty seconds flat with no hesitation whatsoever.
I have seen it THREE times in real matches.
Once in a lightning tournament while I was at university, and luckily we had been practising it quite recently so our guy got the full point.
Second was in a match between two 170 players in my league - one of them being a SIM in correspondence - but that ended in a draw as it reached 50 moves without a mate.
Third was more recently in a county match and the opposing player was forced to do it very fast as it was in a blitz finish - he managed to pull it off in one of the shortest sequences I have ever seen, I think it was about 25 moves.
Originally posted by Fat LadyI don't know, it did took me a while to realize how to drive the defending king into the corner along the edge, especially how to use tempo moves in that. and I'd guess efficiently driving up the king against the edge isn't that obvious either at first.
I'm surprised you found mating with two bishops difficult. It's pretty intuitive and most players could probably work it out over the board in a real game.
Bishop and knight is a different proposition altogether.
I've seen KBN vs K twice in real games. The first time was between two fairly weak players. The game was adjudicated and a strong player sho ...[text shortened]... the bishop and knight did the job in about thirty seconds flat with no hesitation whatsoever.
just tried KBB for the first time in maybe 1½ years. took me 23 moves, and I didn't really have any problems... at least it seems to stick with you better than the KNB mate.