The bishop and knight checkmate in chess is the checkmate of a lone king by a king, a bishop, and a knight. With the stronger side to move and with perfect play, checkmate can be forced in at most thirty-three moves from any starting position where the defender cannot quickly win one of the pieces.[1][2] The exception is the "stalemate trap". These exceptions constitute about 0.5% of the positions.[2] Checkmates are possible with the defending king on any square at the edge of the board but can be forced only from positions with different material or if the defending king is in a corner controlled by the bishop or on a square on the edge next to a corner; however, mate adjacent to the corners not controlled by the bishop is only two moves deep (with the same material), so it is not generally encountered unless the defending side plays inaccurately. Although this is classified as one of the four basic or elementary checkmates[3] (the others being king and queen; king and rook; or king and two bishops against a lone king), it occurs in practice only approximately once in every 6,000 games.[4]
A.
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Checkmate with bishop and knight[5]
B.
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8
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An alternate checkmate[6]
C.
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Alternate checkmate that cannot be forced
D.
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8
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Alternate checkmate that cannot be forced
E.
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8
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Alternate checkmate, two moves deep, that can be achieved against incorrect defense
F.
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Checkmate in "wrong" corner that cannot be forced
G.
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White to move checkmates in 33 moves with optimal play on both sides, which is the longest distance to checkmate for these positions.[7]
H.
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Checkmate can be forced. Alternate ending for sample B.
This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
^Müller & Lamprecht (2001), p. 19.
^ abSpeelman, Tisdall & Wade (1993), p. 7.
^(Fine & Benko 2003:1)
^Müller & Lamprecht (2001), p. 11.
^(Müller & Lamprecht 2001:19)
^(Dvoretsky 2006:279)
^(Müller & Lamprecht 2001:400)
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