Checkmates

Bishop and Knight Mate

Advanced

Step 1 of 4

White to move · Mate in 1

Check with the bishop for mate.

How to play the bishop and knight mate

Bishop and knight is the hardest of the basic mates. You can only force mate in a corner of the same colour as your bishop. If the enemy king runs to the other corner, keep it on the edge and drive it along to the right one, with the knight covering the squares the bishop can't. From the middle of the board it can take about 30 moves, so work carefully.

Check with the bishop for mate.

h8 is dark, like your bishop, so you can mate here. Bring the knight over.

Your bishop is light, so h8 is the wrong corner. Drive the king to a8 or h1.

Now mate it in the light corner.

Every move is checked with an endgame tablebase, which knows the exact result of every position with up to seven pieces. The computer defends perfectly, and if a move throws the result away, the trainer stops and shows you a better one.