The Endgame Academy Vol.1: Checkmate & pawn endgames

Mating with bishop and knight: W-manoeuvre

 

Mating with knight & bishop is a bit trickier.  Do you know the famous W-manoeuvre? No - stay right here, it's not that difficult:

The endgame is quite tricky, especially as the 50-move rule helps the defender. The king, bishop and knight share the work in the following way: The king is in opposition or one knight move away from its opponent, usually on squares of the opposite colour to the bishop. The knight is close to the king because it is a short-range piece and takes the escape squares of the color that the bishop does not have. The bishop is very fast and can easily create zugzwang situations. Mate can only be forced in the corner controlled by the bishop, we will call it the "correct corner" below, and the winning procedure consists of the following steps:

1) Forcing the king to the edge of the board
2) The defending king must be forced from the "wrong" to the "right" corner
3) Checkmate the king in the "right" corner

W-manoeuvre: Video:

 

Replay:

 

Now you can practice what you just learned against Fritz: