B+N vs. K ending (was: Worst/Best Display of Sportsmanship at a Tournament by Opponent)

On Jan 28, 9:49 am, "Chess One" <OneCh...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Larry Tapper" <larry_tap...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message


In the New York Open about 25 years ago, I got a position with bishop
and knight vs. lone king against a 2300 player I won't name. First he
tried to convince me that this was a theoretical draw; then he
disappeared with his clock still ticking, an hour away from a time
forfeit.

And who, computer or human opponent, is going to do better in this scenario?
Since the position, and hence any known technique, is rare, I would say
chances for draw are quire reasonable.

Many instructional books have described the method for mating with B
+N. A few from my library:

"Basic Chess Endings" by Reuben Fine, pp. 4-5
"Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual" (2nd edition) by Mark Dvoretsky, p. 279
"How I Became a Grandmaster at Age 14" by Alexandra Kosteniuk, pp.
86-90. This discussion, based on a Russian book by Zhuravlev, is the
clearest and best I have seen on the B+N ending. Kosteniuk's father
would drill her by setting up a random position on the board, and
giving her one minute to checkmate him. She says that by the time she
was a second-category player (about 1800 Elo, I think) she could
accomplish this consistently. Rev. Walker apparently has found this
drill useful too.

Personally, I've never had the position in any of my games, and have
seen it only once in rated play, in a club tournament in Cincinnati.
The closest I came was an ending I was winning handily, when my
opponent suddenly realized he could sacrifice down to a position where
all I had left was two knights. Unfortunately for him, he still had
one pawn left, which made a win for me theoretically possible. I
didn't mate him, but he did lose on time.
.

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