Become The World Chess Champion of Knight + Bishop Mates on Lichess

 I have to admit I don't know my Knight and Bishop endgame very well. There are a lot of us out there. So I remember someone telling me that Lichess has a really good training system for this.

Lichess Practice: Checkmating with Bishop and Knight


The training system is so good that it takes you through a course the is interactive and gives you the history around the endgame and some examples of epic fails.

Soon I'll be able to show up in civilized chess society as a player who can mate with Bishop + Knight lol.

Just an aside, the game Ushenina vs Girya is an interesting game where the then Women's Chess World Champion, Grandmaster Anna Ushenina played a super-strong game to reach the ending against the very strong Grandmaster Olga Girya, to do this she had to eliminate all Girya's pawns and avoid stalemate tricks which she did and almost mated her on the spot but for one important fact, Olga's King was trapped in the wrong corner!!! Anna knew this of course and set about working to deliver mate which with perfect play would be 24 moves because half her work is done, guiding the opponent's king which has run to the wrong square for mating is a theme of the ending and they are then guided along the ranks to the other corner and mate is delivered. Well, something strange happened to Anna and whether it was the shift from working out tactical threats and stalemate tricks Olga had to dry technique she didn't find the right moves and kept playing until the game was drawn by the 50 move rule. 

It is a salutary lesson for all of you guys out there who think you are too strong to bother learning it and will work it out on the board. Lichess gives you a free interactive training system for learning it.

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