I feel like a tard. I have the chessmaster game and I set up king and queen vs king and knight, and I have been told that the queen can always mate and that there is no draw unless I loose my queen. I watch chessmaster play itself, I listen to the advice it gives me on moves, but I just can't seem to grasp how they now where to move next.

Can anyone recommend and articles or explain, in considerable detail how this works?

hi everyone,

I am very much interested in chess, i can play very good when i am defeated repeatedly. but when i succedd i could not continue the same for some time.

Perhaps if you posted the starting position and the moves we could figure it out for you.

Basic Chess Endings by Fine [I have the "old one" 1969] covers this near the end of the book without much explanation though.

I believe [but don't own them so can't confirm] these books cover this as well:

Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge by Y. Averbakh

Fundamental Chess Endings by Muller and Lapmrehct

Also, here is a link for training yourself in this mate.

Checkmate with Queen vs Knight - Interactive Chess Endgame Player

Normally this should go on the puzzle page.
The position is from Berger. According to Fine and Benko the player with the Queen always wins. But the advice is also " exercising a modicum of caution, White soon forces mate". (p. 580 BCE).
Note that BCE which came out in 1941 in the U.S. has been revised several times. Corrections over the years in Chess Life & Review, and now Chess Life.
Botvinnik took the book with him to various tournaments.
A further comment The Queen vs. TWO minor pieces is normally a draw.
But there are exceptions.
The solution: 1. Kb2 Kd5 2. Kc3 Ne4+ 3. Kd3 Nc5+ 4. Ke3 Ne6 5. Qf5+ Kd6 6. Ke4 Nc5+ 7. Kd4 Ne6+ 8. Kc4 Nc7 9. Qc5+ Kd7 10. Qb6 Ne6 11. Kd5 Nc7+ 12. Ke5 Ne8 13. Qe6+ Kd8 14. Qf7 Nc7 15. Kd6 Nb5+ 16. Kc5 and wins.
Note: When playing any phase of chess develop a plan.

Most books seem to gloss over this endgame, but I've always thought it was harder than it sounds.

The two keys are to lead with your king (good rule of thumb in any endgame, really) and don't put your king and queen on the same color square. That avoids knight forks without having to think about it.

I can't really give much better advice than this, as I can't say I've truly perfected this endgame myself. It's never really come up, though, so I've never needed it. I do think it'd be nice to know, though.

--Fromper

If you really want a 100% fool-proof way of avoiding knight forks, put your Queen and King on different colored squares. However, this should make it harder to win than doing it the normal way.

One key thing with knights is to know the best place to put your king. The safest place is 2 diagonal squares away as it takes the knight the longest time to maneuver around to check the king. Notice in Malbase's solution, the king keeps moving 2 diagonal squares away.