On: Chess: Who will win in this riveting game of Math....

[stolio]

You can easily checkmate with a king and a rook, it just has to be along an edge of the board.

In rare circumstances you can checkmate with a king and a single bishop: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/more-puzzles/mate-with-one-b...

[lmm → stolio]

Any piece (well, except the king) can checkmate with cooperation from the opponent's pieces. The standard sets (queen, rook, two bishops, bishop and knight) are those with which you can force a checkmate against an opponent who just has a king.