I have always struggled to nail down the technique for checkmating with just a knight and bishop, but then I came across the W-system. Suddenly, it makes the process a whole lot easier.
Before showing you the W-system, here’s a quick summary of the general principles you need to follow for a bishop and knight checkmate:
- Checkmate can only be forced when the enemy king is in a corner which is the same colour as the square of your bishop.
- This means that the enemy king will tend to head towards a corner of the opposite colour to your bishop.
- The W system deals with driving the enemy king across from the “wrong” corner to the right one: