Can the bishops and knights triumph over the queen? I heard that two bishops and two knights have good winning chances against the queen according to the 7-man tablebases. Unfortunately, even the pawnless 7-man tablebases are not available online. So, I am wondering if this special position is won for white.



[FEN "3qk3/8/8/8/8/8/8/1NB1KBN1 w - - 0 1"]
[TITLE "White to move and win?"]



Houdini's Shootout at Level 21 Ply :

[Event "Stellung ausspielen (Houdini15aw32, 21p)"]
[White "Neue Partie"]
[Black "Houdini 1.5a w32"]
[Result "1-0"]
[FEN "3qk3/8/8/8/8/8/8/1NB1KBN1 w - - 0 0"]

1. Nf3 Qa5+ 2. Nbd2 Qb4 3. Ne5 Qc3 4. Nd3 Qf6 5. Bb2 Qh4+ 6. Ke2 Qh2+ 7. Nf2

Qc7 8. Bd4 Kf8 9. Nfe4 Ke7 10. Ke3 Kd7 11. Bc4 Ke7 12. Bd5 Qd7 13. Nf6 Qc7 14.

Nf3 Qc1+ 15. Ke4 Qc8 16. Ng5 Qc2+ 17. Ke5 Qc7+ 18. Kf5 Qc2+ 19. Nge4 Qd1 20.

Bc5+ Kd8 21. Ke6 Qe1 22. Bb6+ Kc8 23. Ke7 Qe2 24. Kf7 Qf1 25. Nc5 Qf4 26. Bb7+

Kb8 27. Bc6 Qf5 28. Na6+ Kc8 29. Bd7+ Qxd7+ 30. Nxd7 Kxd7 31. Nb4 Kc8 32. Ke6

Kb7 33. Nd5 Ka6 34. Be3 Kb7 35. Kd6 Kb8 36. Kc6 Ka8 37. Nc7+ Kb8 38. Bb6 Kc8

39. Ba7 Kd8 40. Nd5 Ke8 41. Kd6 Kf7 42. Ne7 Kg7 43. Be3 Kf6 44. Bf4 Kf7 45. Bg5

Ke8 46. Nc6 Kf7 47. Ne5+ Ke8 48. Kc6 Kf8 49. Kd7 Kg7 50. Ke7 Kg8 51. Bh6 Kh7

52. Bf8 Kg8 53. Ng4 Kh7 54. Kf7 Kh8 55. Bg7+ Kh7 56. Nf6# 1-0
Theoretically yes, as a practical matter (for humans), no.

What is known is that a pawnless position cannot be won (barring unusual positional circumstances) if one side has an advantage of a bishop or knight, but it can be won if one side has the advantage of a rook (or a queen versus a rook).

The "old" wisdom is that three minor pieces are worth about a queen, so white has the advantage of one minor piece. As a matter of fact, three minor pieces may be worth more than a queen, pushing white's advantage closer to, say, queen versus rook.

The other thing is that with so many pieces and moving parts, White has "coordination" problems. That's why as a practical matter, human beings won't win with this kind of advantage. The advantage of a computer is that it can calculate its way around coordination problems. If the minor piece synergies indeed give the computer an advantage greater than a minor piece, the computer will find a way to bring this extra power to bear; a human being (other than a world champion caliber player), will not.