To be honest mating with N+B is a must know. It is also very easy to learn, so there is no excuse.
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Well, he IS an IM....
I remained clueless on the technique until about a year ago, when a friend of mine at a tournament showed me how.
In my 24,323 games on this site, I have gotten to B+N exactly 2 times. Once in a blitz game, and I flagged. The other in a Classical game and I was able to mate in 30 moves: lichess.org/rgGocHYVM5GN
So, statistically, it's insignificant. However, it's actually kind of fun to learn imo, and it's satisfying to win with B+N if it ever does show up.
In my 24,323 games on this site, I have gotten to B+N exactly 2 times. Once in a blitz game, and I flagged. The other in a Classical game and I was able to mate in 30 moves: lichess.org/rgGocHYVM5GN
So, statistically, it's insignificant. However, it's actually kind of fun to learn imo, and it's satisfying to win with B+N if it ever does show up.
It certainly is must-know if you want to get anywhere. There are countless positions where knowing B+N might be relevant.
Depends on what you mean by "anywhere", I suppose.
I've known players >2200 USCF who didn't know it.
Ushenina became women's world champion, and...well, ok, I guess that horse has been flogged quite enough in the past :)
You can definitely get "somewhere" without knowing it.
You won't score any chess culture points, and you may blow the very occasional half point, but I hardly think that puts you "nowhere".
Still, to the point @lovlas is making, there's not a good reason NOT to know it.
It's not something with a high difficulty-to-reward ratio like some of the more arcane endings, so you might as well learn it.
If it were something that would take a year of dedicated study to master, then ok, the return would be way too small.
As it is, though, you can learn it very quickly and with only the smallest amount of effort, so why not?
I've known players >2200 USCF who didn't know it.
Ushenina became women's world champion, and...well, ok, I guess that horse has been flogged quite enough in the past :)
You can definitely get "somewhere" without knowing it.
You won't score any chess culture points, and you may blow the very occasional half point, but I hardly think that puts you "nowhere".
Still, to the point @lovlas is making, there's not a good reason NOT to know it.
It's not something with a high difficulty-to-reward ratio like some of the more arcane endings, so you might as well learn it.
If it were something that would take a year of dedicated study to master, then ok, the return would be way too small.
As it is, though, you can learn it very quickly and with only the smallest amount of effort, so why not?
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