Cutting Off the Knight: Bishop and Pawn Endgame
White to play and win
PlayBishop and pawn against a knight, and the knight is stuck on the edge of the board. The rule: count the knight's squares, and if your bishop can cover all of them, the knight is out of the game while your king escorts the pawn.
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Cutting the Knight Off with the Bishop
White to play and win · Win against perfect defense
Waking the engine…
The theory
Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.
Count the knight's moves from h5: f4, g3, f6 and g7. On the edge it has only four squares.
A knight on the rim is a knight in trouble. A bishop with the right diagonal can take away every square it has, and a dominated knight is worth nothing at all.
Freeze it. From h5 the knight has exactly four moves: f4, g3, f6 and g7. Be5 covers all four. It is the only move that wins, and after it the knight is a spectator.
Then escort. Bring the king up with Kc5 before touching the pawn. Pushing d5-d6 at once just loses the pawn to Kxd6, and bishop against knight is a dead draw.
The point. After d6 Ke6, Kc6 Kxe5, d7 the black king wins the bishop and still loses the race. The knight on h5 is three hops from the queening square and never gets there.
In this drill you face an opponent that never gives up a half point. Dominate the knight first, escort second, and the pawn promotes.
Keep going
Only Be8 Stops the Pawn
Black to play and draw
Count the Diagonal, Then Block It
White to play and win
Bring Your King in Time: Knight and Pawn vs Bishop
Black to play and draw
All 15 bishop vs knight positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)