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An Unusual Ending
One of the first things learned by every chess player are the basic checkmates. King and Queen versus King, Rook and King against King - and on down to the King plus Bishop pair versus King, and the difficult King with Bishop and Knight mating the King. Many good players, however, are completely unacquainted with the final "basic" checkmate, that of King plus two Knights against King and pawn. Even chess experts, those aware of this complex checkmate, are often unskilled in its execution.
Here is an example of the typical end phase of the actual mating procedure:
Now the Black Knight can release the pawn and head to the Queenside for checkmate, not worrying about stalemate because White has to move his pawn.
Naturally, most chess players never encounter this obscure ending in their entire careers. But the chess goddess Caissa presented me on two occasions with a King and Knight pair against a lone King. The first was won from a drawn position, and the second was drawn from a won position - and to be fair, neither opponent thought checkmate to be possible at all.
King & 2 Knights vs. King & Pawn
An excellent introduction to the world of chess endgames is Blake's marvelous Endings for Beginners, now a digital chess e-book. However, the rare checkmate seen on this page is most interesting and well worth examining, not only for the fun of it but to learn masterful handling of everyone's favorite chess piece, the Knight!