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In chess, the bishop and knight checkmate is the checkmate of a lone king by an opposing king, bishop, and knight.With the stronger side to move, checkmate can be forced in at most thirty-three moves from almost any starting position.
The bishop and knight mate is one of the four basic checkmates and occurs when the king works together with a bishop and knight to force the opponent king to the corner of the board. The bishop and knight endgame can be difficult to master: some positions may require up to 34 moves of perfect play before checkmate can be delivered.
The two knights endgame is a chess endgame with a king and two knights versus a king. In contrast to a king and two bishops (on opposite-colored squares), or a bishop and a knight, a king and two knights cannot force checkmate against a lone king (however, the superior side can force stalemate [1] [2]).
Two basic checkmate positions are shown with a bishop and a knight, or the bishop and knight checkmate. [40] The first position is a checkmate by the bishop, with the black king in the corner. The bishop can be on other squares along the diagonal, the white king and knight have to be on squares that attack g8 and h7.
If White has bishop and knight, and Black has a rook, the endgame is classified KBNKR. KNBKR would not be standard. KNBKR would not be standard. In positions with two or more bishops on the board, a "bishop signature" may be added to clarify the relationship between the bishops.
Checkmate can be forced with a bishop and knight, however, or with two bishops, even though the bishop and knight are in general about equal in value. Paradoxically, checkmate with two knights sometimes can be forced if the weaker side has a single extra pawn, but this is a curiosity of little practical value (see two knights endgame ).
Being a five-piece endgame, the rook and bishop versus rook endgame has been fully analysed using computers. Endgame tablebases show that 40.1% of the legal positions with this material are theoretical wins, but that includes many unnatural positions that are unlikely to occur in games.
Black has gained the bishop pair at the cost of a weakened pawn structure, having doubled pawns on c6 and c7. White aims to reach an endgame with a superior pawn structure, which may become an important factor. Thus, Black is compelled to strive for an active position, generally avoiding piece exchanges.