Insufficient material
The previous lesson was about simplifying into a pawn endgame. It is also possible to simplify into other types of endgames. In this lesson we will focus on defense. Usually when you are behind in material, it is better not to exchange pieces. An exception to this is if the attacker is left with a position in which they can no longer give mate with that extra material.
We will cover the following situations in this lesson:
King and knight against king (example 1)
King and bishop against king (example 2)
King and 'wrong' bishop + edge pawn against king (example 3)
King and two knights against king (example 4)
The aim of this lesson is to simplify into one of the above situations, so that you can still save a seemingly lost position with half a point (see examples 5 and 6).
What do you have to do?
Simplify into an endgame in which the other player has insufficient material to mate.
We know from mating with the queen or rook that we must drive the other player's king to the corner or edge. Unfortunately, this is not sufficient if a player only has a knight.
In the example, the king is in check, but not mate. The king can still move to the side.
No matter what you try, you will never succeed in mating with king and knight against king. Check this for yourself. Suppose the knight is on f6 instead of g6, then white has succeeded in taking all the squares from the king. However, the king is then not in check: it is stalemate!
