Rook vs Bishop and Knight: The Draw
White to play and draw
PlayBishop and knight are worth more than your rook, but with no pawns this ending is normally a draw. The rule: keep the rook on squares that neither minor piece nor his king covers, watch for a check that also attacks your rook, and give the rook for a minor piece when you can, because a lone bishop or knight cannot mate.
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Rook Holds vs Bishop & Knight
White to play and draw · Hold the draw against perfect play
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The theory
Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.
Rf8 attacks the knight, but it lands on the bishop's diagonal: Bxf8.
Two minor pieces outweigh a rook, yet with no pawns on the board bishop and knight cannot beat a rook whose king stays out of trouble: there is no forced mate.
Two dangers. With no pawns, bishop and knight have two ways to win: a mating net, which forms on the edge and above all in the corners, and a tactic that wins the rook: a rook move onto a square they cover, a fork or a skewer. Keep your king in the center, away from the edge, check what the minor pieces cover before every rook move, and the draw is comfortable.
The method. Keep your king in or near the center; the moment it is pushed toward an edge, use rook checks to break the minors' coordination and march back. Keep the rook active, and grab any safe chance to trade it for a bishop or knight: what is left, a lone bishop or knight against a bare king, cannot mate.
In this drill you hold with the rook. Stay central, check when pressed, and steer toward a trade: the pieces cannot force the win.
Keep going
Rook & Pawn vs Knight
White to play and win
Rook & Pawn vs Bishop
White to play and win
Knight & Pawn Hold vs Rook
Black to play and draw
All 30 rook vs minor positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)