Abstract/Summary

This article explores the variety and depth of chess' sub-8-man minor piece endgame. These endgames feature no queens or rooks but at least one bishop or knight, and no more than one per side. Demis Hassabis, now CEO of Deep Mind, has talked of 'the exquisite balance of Bishop and Knight'. The investigation uses the framework of 'Understanding Minor Piece Endgames' by Karsten Mueller and Yakov Konoval. Some twenty-five examples taken from games, studies, computer analysis and teaching material, show a variety of ideas. We compliment the book and provide ancillary files which provide more detailed endgame-structure lists, 103 maxDTC positions for all the constituent endgame sides and DTC-minimaxing lines from them.