Every once in a while in my chess preparation I set aside a little time to review the knight and bishop mate. It seems to me that this mating pattern is one of those bugbears that every chess player (shy of strong masters perhaps?) simply prays and gambles will never become relevant in a game. I felt that way (more or less) myself for a long time--why bother studying it? It'll never come up. And then I had that playing experience that calls conventional wisdom into question. So, here's the first example from my own praxis evaluated here on this blog.
For this game, I really want to look at the ending and the middlegame, but I'll include the opening with minimal commentary for those readers who like to see where a game has come from:
Joshua-(Expert)
Summer Swiss, Natick, MA 2006
Round 1
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 e5
6. Ndb5 d6
7. Nd5 Nxd5
8. exd5 Nb8
9. Qf3!? Be7?!
10. Qc3 Na6
11. Be3 Bd7
12. Nxa7 f5
Black has responded poorly to white's opening experiment, but having lost a pawn, he now develops a little bit of counterplay. I suddenly got nervous, began seeing all kinds of nonexistent evils in the position, and blundered.
13. f3?
Better is 13. Bxa6 bxa6 14. 0-0 f4 15. Nc6 where white will consolidate a small advantage.
13. ... Bh4+
14. g3 f4
15. Nb5?
It's hard to understand what I was afraid of. 15. Bf2 fxg3 looks scarier than it is, eg. 16. hxg3 Bxg3 17. Bxg3 Rxa7. Black has recovered his pawn and gained a passed h-pawn, but it has come at the cost of piece coordination, and white will obtain significant play against his king. White is better. Instead:
15. ... 0-0
16. Bf2 Rc8
Now white has to walk a bit of a tightrope.
17. Qb3
The computer prefers 17. Qa3, aiming for counterplay with a proposed perpetual after 17. ... Rxc2 18. gxh4 Rxf2 19. Qxh4 Kg1 etc. My opponent would no doubt have played 17. ... Be7, allowing 18. 0-0-0, and at least I'm still alive kicking, although black definitely has all the fun here.
17. ... Qa5+?!
My opponent angles for activity, but this move allowed 18. c3!, a move that my meager tactical vision consigned to the scrap heap, as I was worried about the future of my b5 knight. It turns out that the queen placement on b3 opens up tactical possibilities based on Na7-c6, due to the threat of pawn takes knight, pawn takes pawn check! This is the kind of lingering tactical idea that computers are chill with and human nervous systems can hardly tolerate... Incidentally, 17. ... Be7 was more or less equal after something like 18. 0-0-0 Nc5. Black will have the fun, but white should hold.
18. Nc3? fxg3
19. hxg3 Rxf3
Now white is in trouble, and we can see the shortcomings of my piece placement.
20. Bb6
Rather than attempting to counter strike with something like 20. Bd3, threatening Bxh7, I realized that I could force the queens off at the cost of my g-pawn (which was going down anyway) and I figured I would have better chances of holding with his queen off the board. This turns out to be rather misguided...
20. ... Bxg3+
21. Kd1 Qb4
22. Qxb4 Nxb4
This "endgame" is hardly less shaky than the middlegame. c3 is still a squealing weakness, and the black kingside passers a long-term problem.
23. a3
This is the resource I was counting on. White needs a tempo or so to try to catch his breath and unravel. If black complies, the plan actually works: 23. ... Na6 24. Ne4 Bg4 (black must counterattack; d6 cannot be defended) 25. Be2 Rcf8!
Threatening the demonic Rf1+! Therefore, white must play: 26. Kc1 Bf4+ 27. Kb1 Be3 28. Rh4 Bxb3 29. Rxg4 Rh3 30. Nxd6
And here, white is still a bit shakier than black, but the passed d-pawn suddenly offers realistic counter chances and prospects of a dynamically even game. I hadn't seen all of this with clarity of course, but I had the sense that the queen exchange had given me a new lease on life...
Instead, my opponent sank into a deep thought, fidgeted several times like a cat about to make a jump, and then slammed
23. ... Rfxc3!
onto the board with a huge exultant grin.
I admit, I was initially surprised and pleased to be winning an exchange. Then I was steadily demoralized as I took stock of what my opponent had just done to my position. At the cost of a rook for a knight and pawn, black has taken a commanding hold over the board, demonstrating that white's pieces are miserably uncoordinated, that his king is laughably naked and that the black pawns are going to have their say. The knight's ability to jump to e4 was one of the few remaining resources for white in the whole position. In a sense, black has just eliminated white's best piece! My opponent was very proud of this exchange sacrifice after the game, and he had every right to be; it was definitely the best move in the position, and one that I had not even considered.
24. bxc3 Nxd5
25. Ba5 Bg4+
26. Kc1
White's pieces scatter like roaches exposed to light as the position goes from desperate to pathetic.
My only saving grace here was that my opponent had consumed gobs of time wending his way through the opening and deciding on his exchange sac, and now had precious few minutes to reach 40 moves.
26. ... h5
27. Bh3
Disregarding admonitions about avoiding exchanges as the inferior side, I had a sudden notion that I might be able to work my king toward d3 and suppress the central pawns if I got my opponent's light-squared bishop off the board. It's really just a fantasy...
27. ... Bxh3
28. Rxh3 h4
29. Kd2 Bf4+?!
Black starts to lose the thread. 29. ... e4 was fairly decisive, and even a move like 29. ... g5 would have maintained the full advantage.
30. Ke2
Sliding toward the white squares.
30. ... g5
31. Rg1
And somehow, white is crawling back into this game!
Of course, 31. Rd1 is objectively stronger, but I was the midst of hatching a hair-brained scheme. I had decided here that my only chance of holding was to maximize piece activity. Black's last several moves made his bishop passive, and I came to the conclusion that if I could only activate my own bishop, I might be able to pick off a few of his pawns.
31. ... Kf7
32. c4?!?
And here it is, a ridiculous idea. White jettisons both of his c-pawns to activate his bishop. This is definitely a losing plan, but recall that my opponent was running very low on time and getting increasingly nervous, lest he make a mistake. I had calculated a sequence resulting in the exchange of a pair of rooks, and I thought that the resulting position would give me good chances to pick off several of black's pawns. It was certainly worth a shot!
32. ... Rxc4
33. Bd8 Rxc2+
34. Kf3 Rc3+
35. Kg4 Rxh3
36. Kxh3
Objectively, white is dead lost, but his suddenly active pieces now have an opportunity to begin collecting pawns.
36. ... Kg6
37. Rd1 Ne3
38. Rxd6+ Kh5
And now came the ridiculous inspiration. White will get rolled off the board by the combined force of the h and g pawns unless he does something drastic, hence:
39. Bxg5 Kxg5
40. Rb6 Nc4
Here we had reached 40 moves, but my opponent didn't know it and kept blitzing out his replies.
41. Rxb7 Nxa3
42. Rg7+ Kf5?
43. Kxh4
White has achieved more than he could realistically have hoped for. Black's split-second decision to jettison his h-pawn instead of playing passively, eg. 43. ... Kh5 44. Rh7+ Bh6 has suddenly centered the entire game on a discussion of whether black knows how to mate with bishop and knight! At about this point, my opponent looked at me and queried as to whether we had reached 40 moves. When I answered in the affirmative, he got up for a long stretch and breather while I sat and pondered.
The question I faced here was whether I should sac the rook for the pawn at the first opportunity, trusting that my opponent would not know what he was doing, or whether I should maneuver for a while, seeing how he played it. It seemed to me that there would probably be multiple opportunities to sacrifice the rook (preferably at a point where my king had achieved greater centralization) and that my opponent's play would give me cues about his confidence. If he just calmly advanced the pawn, disregarding the threat of the rook sac, I would know that he knew the endgame (or had a good poker face), and I was probably done for. On the other hand, if he attempted to shelter the pawn with his pieces, I might be able to torture for a long time...
43. ... Ke4
44. Kg4?
Argh. It turns out that this straightforward move is a mistake, as I cut off my own king's path to the front of the pawn, making the defense significantly more difficult. Preferable (probably) was 33. Kh3 Nc2 45. Kg2 Ke3 46. Kf1
44. ... Nc2
45. Re7 Ne3+
And here my opponent shows some understanding of knight and bishop coordination--not a good sign. He has built a wall along the g-file, cutting off my king.
Gloomily, I retreated.
46. Kh5 Kf3
47. Kg6 e4
48. Re8
A pointless move, but what else is there? I was getting ready to sac the rook... or resign.
48. ... Ng4?!
But what's this??!! The most obvious move was 48. ... Nc7 or Ng7, covering all the squares to the first rank and forcing the rook sac. Instead, my opponent seems to be preparing to play his knight to e5 to shield the pawn. Seeing the possibility of queening and thus winning without being obliged to demonstrate an understanding of bishop-knight mating, he leaps for it. With a new lease on life, I suddenly sank into thought. If my opponent is honestly nervous about knight and bishop mate, I thought, perhaps I should hold off sacrificing the rook and maneuver still further. The contortions that black will have to go to keep the rook from taking the pawn will be difficult and stressful, and he might make a mistake!
49. Kf5 Ne5
50. Ra8
Of course not 50. Rxe5?? winning the two pieces and losing the game.
50. ... Nd3
51. Ra3
I begin the process of torturing him.
51. ... Bd2
52. Rb3
My play here is risky; objectively I should have sac'd the rook already, but it remains virtually impossible for black to promote the pawn without allowing the rook to capture.
52. ... Bb4
53. Ke6
And here, after a long think, my opponent suddenly sat up and confidently slammed down the move Nc5+.
Of course, this is a lovely impossibility, and I duly pointed out to him that he had just dropped his king, and we had to stop the clocks and have the tournament director assess a time penalty to his clock. I think this is what ultimately did him in. He was so flustered to have made such an oversight that he could no longer summon the courage to even consider the knight and bishop mate.
53. ... Kf2
54. Kd5 e3
55. Rb1 Bd2
Black harbors dreams of playing 56. Nc1 and forcing through the pawn. Of course, this overlooks the threat of Rb2, forcing a king move that will enable the white rook to redeploy to attack the pawn from the rear.
56. Rd1 Nb2
57. Rh1 Na4
This knight move is quite strange. Obviously, 57. ... e2 was the move, but again that faces the rook sac that black just can't bring himself to encourage.
58. Kd4 Nc3?
Black has finally completely lost it. I almost began to pity him. His eccentric knight maneuver, perhaps conceived in an attempt to bring the knight around to g1 and thus shield the pawn, has let the white king in to d3 where it will finally be able to join the fight and prevent the black pawn from queening. Now black has to work hard to achieve the bishop and knight endgame without allowing a rook for piece and pawn exchange.
59. Kd3 Nd5??
Ayieee! The stress has finally broken him and he completely cracks up. Relatively best was 59. ... Kg2 after which black has to invest half a dozen moves to force the original rook sac. Instead, he has allowed the terminating stroke:
60. Rh2+
After which, Rxd2 wins the bishop and pawn for the rook, draw.
1/2-1/2
Not objectively a great game, and certainly not an accurate one, but it was one of my more dramatic chess battles. The lesson here? Well, I won't indulge in a lecture on gambler's fallacies. Knight and bishop mate endgames are very rare, so it's probably not worth studying the patterns for most players. That said, there's little worse than finding yourself with an obviously winning position and not knowing how to win it...
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