White to move. Is this a draw or loss for White? How should White proceed?
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For me it is a draw if only White plays 1.Nc1! keeping the king and the knight linked together.
I would keep the knight close at hand. Black wins this position by either creating double threats of mate with attacks on the knight, or by trapping the knight with the king and rook. For example:
1. Ng3 Rg2
2. Ne4 Re2
3. Nd6 Kb3
4. Kc1 Re5 (covering b5,f5,e4)
5. Nb7 Rd5!(covering a5,b5,d6,d8)
And, now, white is in a world of hurt- the knight is trapped and the king has only b1 to move to, but that is mate on the next move. At move 5, white could try
5. Nf7 Rd5! (covering d8,d6,e5,g5)
Here, the knight must move since the king is mated on 6.Kb1. Continuing:
6. Nh6 Kc3!
Now, white has Kb1 and the knight moves Ng4, Nf7, and Ng8. On the latter two moves, black plays Rf5 or Rg5 with the double threat of winning the knight and mating with Rf1 or Rg1. Let’s take Kb1 and Ng4 sequentially:
7. Ng4 Rg5
8. Nf2
Or Ne3, doesn’t matter:
8. …..Rg1
9. Nd1 Kd3 and the knight is pinned and lost. Or
7. Kb1 Rb5
And, now, white has Ka1, Ka2, and Kc1. Taking each in order:
8. Ka1 Kc2 with mate to follow on the next move. Or
8. Ka2 Rb2
9. Ka1
Here, Ka3 loses to Rb6 with the double threat of taking the knight and mate. Continuing:
9. Ka1 Kb3
10.Nf5 Rd2!
Covering d4 and threatening mate on the next move. Continuing:
11.Ne3 Rh2 with the unstoppable threat of mate starting with Rh1. And, finally, back at move 8, white loses with
8. Kc1 Rh5 and the knight is lost.
In the beginning position, white should be able to draw by playing Nc1 immediately:
1. Nc1
This takes b3 away from black’s king. If the black rook moves off the second rank, the white king can escape the edge of the board, and if the rook moves to f2, g2, or h2, white can simply play Na2:
1. …..Rf2
2. Na2 Rf1
3. Kb2 and how does black make progress from here?
The things to remember- the rook can push the knight away if the knight strays too far from his king, and keep him away by being appropriately placed to cover key squares. Also, the knight blocking the mate of the king on the edge of the board with the kings in opposition is a loss since the stronger side always has the waiting move to win the pinned knight unless both kings are on the edge of the board in which case the player with the knight has no legal move.
This is a draw. From what I recall the side with the knight should keep the knight and king as close together as possible and not get shoved into the corner
Chucky explains how to solve it here:
Click Here
if Nc1, then white has an answer to all of black’s winning attempts. Kb3 and Kd3 are not possible. if Kc3, then Na2+. if Ka3 or rook to the first rank, then Kc2. greets, jan
Agree with the draw. Seems to me that keeping knight and king close is good, but having the knight and king orthogonally (not diagonally) next to one another at the edge is particularly important as it prohibits the other king to reach opposition.
The procedure what Yancey Ward has explained they are perfect.
Under here a rare case where KR vs KN wins.
From a 1257 Arabic manuscript.
7R/kn6/2K5/8/8/8/8/8 b – – 0 1
Sweet greetings, Susan.
Stef
the chess world has its fair share of unusual finishes.
Readers may wish to see the errors of Eames-Chkartina from the recent Hastings 2010/11!
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6920