Longest forced win with just a Knight or Bishop A single knight or bishop usually isn't enough to force checkmate. However, I know there are certain positions where the defending side has his king in front of a rook pawn where a win can be forced.

So I have two questions related to this:


What is the longest forced win where the winning side has only a knight or bishop?
Are there any nontrivial (i.e., not mate in 1) forced wins that don't involve the losing side having his king trapped in front of a rook pawn?
According to this website, the longest checkmate for K+B vs. K+P is a simple mate in one, e.g.

[FEN "8/8/8/8/8/8/p7/k1K1B3 w - - 0 1"]


The K+N vs. K+P case is slightly more interesting, the following position is mate in seven:

[FEN "8/8/8/8/p7/8/N7/k1K5 w - - 0 1"]

1. Nb4 a3 2. Nc2+ Ka2 3. Nd4 Ka1 4. Kc2 Ka2 5. Ne2 Ka1 6. Nc1 a2 7. Nb3#


You can play these endgames with online tablebases, e.g. this one from Shredder.