Checkmate with two knight against king+pawn!

As an average chess player i always understand some basics endgame knowledge such as king vs king, king+bishop vs king, king+knight vs king, king+two knight vs king and etc.etc are draw because of insufficient material to checkmate but recently I’ve read one article in chesscafe and i was shock to know that King +two knight vs king+ 1 pawns can offer winning chance for the side with the knights! (maybe many of you already know but this is new knowledge for me!)

Below is the most interesting example especially when you noticed that the defending player Grand Master Anatoly Karpov-former World Champion and endgame maestro lost this fascinating endgame to future World Champion-Veselin Topalov!


Topalov,Veselin (2702) - Karpov analisa,Anatoly (2696)
[D37]Amber-rapid 9th Monte Carlo 24.03.2000

61... Kc3 62.Kc5 Kd3 63.Nde2 Kd2 64.Kc4 Kc2 65.Nd4+ Kb2 66.Kb4 Ka2 67.Ndf5 Kb2 68.Ne3 Ka2 69.Nc4 Kb1 70.Kc3 Kc1 71.Nb2 Kb1 72.Nd3 Ka1 73.Kb3 Kb1 74.Ne2 Karpov resign because he will be mate in 3! 74...Ka1 [74...g3 75.Nc3+ Ka1 76.Nb4 g2 only move 77.Nc2#] 75.Nc3 g3 only move 76.Nb4 g2 also the only move! 77.Nc2# Checkmate! 1-0

After looking of this game, i search for information about this type of endgame and i found that there is a theory for it. The Russian theoretician Troitsky discovered the following rule:

The Troitsky Line

"if the pawn is securely blockaded by a knight no further then the line, then the side with pawn loses, no matter where the kings are"

Ooh...i gave up already with all this kind of theory ...but for you guys, especially who are planning to be National Master, Fide Master, International Master, Grandmaster whatsoever- you better know this!

you can learn more about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_knights_endgame