Chess Online

An easy straight forward yet hard to see mate. I am sure I would have missed this in a game. Great puzzle! Thanks, Kingdawar

Important mate !

I knew it had to start with the bishop since it was in an apparent use-it-or-lose-it position. Saving it was essential to keeping the balance of material close (not to mention keeping any near-term checkmating opportunity alive). So, do I retreat, or attack with the bishop? Lesson #1: Attacking moves are generally better than passive, retreating ones.

Of the two attacking choices (Bxf3 or Bh3+), Bh3+ looked better from the perspective of being a forcing move with only one possible response. At that point, one could see that white's king was trapped, with no way to avoid being mated by the knight.

I have to confess, I was hoping I was wrong about the Bh3+ move. I like puzzles where "a good forcing move with only one possible response" turns out to be a distraction from a more subtle and lethal combination. But I'm not complaining, because: Lesson #2 for me was: I have trouble visualizing the value of my knights when they are two or more moves away from doing something useful. So, it was a good lesson in that regard.

Thanks kingdawar!

I recall a game where white had blacks king and rook trapped in the corner by whites bishop and knight and blacks remaining pieces (a bishop and some pawns) were powerless to stop the white king marching all the way to the bottom of the board then switching gaurd duties with the white knight so that the white knight could give mate in two. that was a forced mate with many moves and none of them being check

With a king, Bishop & knight against a King, If I remember the process correctly, there are 38 moves to checkmate, 30 some of which are without check.