Good Bishop vs Bad Knight
White to play and win
PlayOne bishop on the long diagonal watches both corners of the board at once: the promotion square of your pawn and the queening square of theirs. The knight cannot be in two places at once, and that is the whole story.
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Good Bishop vs Bad Knight
Win against perfect defense
Waking the engine…
The theory
Bishop versus knight is chess's oldest family argument, and endgames settle it case by case. This position is the bishop's showcase: passed pawns on opposite wings, where one long-range piece fights a two-square hopper on both flanks simultaneously.
Why the bishop is 'good' here. From a single central square the bishop controls a diagonal into each corner: it escorts its own rook pawn toward promotion AND permanently guards the entry square of the enemy passer. It does both jobs while standing still. The knight, magnificent in a small radius, needs four or five tempi to cross the board, and this position never grants them: whichever wing the knight serves, the other is lost.
The rim makes it worse. A knight fighting a rook pawn operates at the board's edge, where half its hopping squares do not exist. Blockading squares near the corner can each be attacked by the king with tempo, and the knight steadily runs out of places to stand. Knight versus escorted rook pawn is one of the piece's most famous failures.
The conversion rules: keep the bishop on the double-duty diagonal instead of chasing the knight; walk the king beside the pawn; and never swap your last pawn for the knight, since a lone bishop mates nobody. The tablebase defense will offer you that trade in every tempting shape it can find.