020. Queen vs. Three Minor Pieces

Black: draco - thematic tournament, ChessWorld.net, 2016

Unusual material equivalences usually lead to interesting games. That is, where each sides’ "point count" is roughly the same but made up of different forces. Such as:

• Rook and pawn(s) vs. bishop and knight;
• Rook vs. minor piece and two pawns;
• Two bishops vs. two knights;
• Queen and pawn(s) vs. two rooks;
• Queen vs. three minor pieces.

And so forth. Which side comes out on top naturally depends on the position, but some generalizations can be made. Such as:

• For the rook to beat bishop and knight in an endgame requires the aid of an outside passed pawn;
• For two knights to beat two bishops, the pawn structure has to favour the knights;
• For the queen to beat two rooks or three minors, the queen needs to have some targets to attack.

The following game featured the last of those, with queen vs. bishop and two knights, and arrived on the board as early as move eight. I'd generally prefer to have the three pieces because they're more fun: three rooks (of the feathered variety) mobbing the big bird. This time I had the queen but in what seemed quite a favourable situation, since, two moves later, all my opponent's pieces were sitting on their original starting squares.



Nevertheless, there were no targets in his position and I was unable to create any as the game proceeded. In fact, in attempting to do so, I allowed my opponent to create some in mine, the main one turning out to be the king. By the time I'd finally achieved anything (connected passed pawns on the seventh), the three minor pieces (assisted by a pawn) had combined to give mate.