Queen vs Queen and Bishop endgame

What I'm asking is there a way or simple rule to follow to avoid being mated.

Yes, everyone always asks if there is simple way to win a chess game or to avoid being checkmated. The answer is also always the same. There are NO simple ways in chess until you have a massive point advantage (like 5 points) and your king is safe. Only after you have become a strong player the margins for a win are smaller and you get better in escaping from tricky situations!

Q+B vs Q is commonly a draw but there are many exceptions. To get a feel for it find a site where you can exercise this endgame or try them out in a tablebase site like Syzygy. https://syzygy-tables.info/

Thanks. The web site helped validate that it's a drawn position between two computers but I'm still not sure if that holds true if between humans. It might require inhuman calculation to succeed one way or the other. I just played a very long endgame with this scenario which resulted in a draw. I also consulted Stilman's, Dvoretshy's and Sheresheshy's endgame books to no avail. After playing chess over 50 years you'd think I would have encountered this before.

These two observations are connected. This endgame is uncommon which explains why nobody writes about it! Decades ago I saw regular publications of endgame studies by Belgian composers featuring this material. Which tells you it's not all plain sailing.

Another note: Tablebase websites deliver objective outcomes which is better than what engines produce when playing one another. These outcomes are as certain as 2+2=4 and will not change in the future. The problem for humans is that tablebase solutions do not follow systematic patterns. We'd rather play an endgame that lasts 15 more moves but with a system of rules we can memorize. Tablebases are poor teachers even when they answer every question correctly!

Wow