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If a King, Knight, and Bishop are pitted against the opposing King, is it possible to force checkmate? I find it very hard to do, enough so that I'm not sure whether there's a clean method.

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3 Answers

up vote 16 down vote accepted

Yes, mate can be forced in 33 moves from nearly any position, according to Wikipedia.

See the standard "w" maneuver cited in that article.

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up vote 12 down vote

Yes it is possible to force mate. There's a phenomenal video explaining the process on chessvideos.tv.

If you want to practice the endgame, you can do so on the same site as well.

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up vote 3 down vote

Yes, it can be done. The standard position is to force the enemy king into a corner of the same color as the bishop. Then there are four squares (the corner, the diagonal, and two lateral) squares that need to be attacked.

The bishop attacks the corner and diagonal squares, the king guards one of the lateral squares, and the knight the other one.

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Diagram oh so welcome. This would really make this question and answer incredibly more useful (tell me if you'd rather have me post it). – Nikana Reklawyks Nov 27 '12 at 5:02
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@NikanaReklawyks feel free to edit the posts and add a replayer yourself, or add a new answer drawing from the other answers! (see also the FAQ section about editing.) – Andrew♦ Dec 3 '12 at 17:16

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