Chess Endgames - Bishop Endings

Bishop Endings

Bishop endings turn on pawn placement and color. A bishop blocked by its own pawns loses power, bishops of opposite colors draw far more often than the material suggests, and a rook pawn can fail to win because of the color of the queening corner. Each topic below shows one of these ideas.

Good and Bad Bishop

Goal

Keep your pawns on the opposite color of your bishop, so it stays free, and attack the enemy pawns that stand on its color.

Idea

The black pawns on f7, g6 and h7 stand on light squares, the color of Black's bishop, so the bishop on h5 is bad and has no square to go to. White's light-squared bishop on c8 controls g4, and 1. g4! wins the bishop for a pawn: after 1... ♚g7 comes 2. gxh5 gxh5.

Technique

1. Count the pawns: pawns on the color of your bishop make it bad, pawns on the other color keep it good.
2. Keep your pawns on the opposite color of your bishop, and attack the enemy pawns on its color.
3. Look for tactics against a bad bishop: it can run out of squares, as the bishop on h5 does.
4. Use the good bishop together with the king to win pawns, then trade into a won ending.

Typical mistake

Locking the bishop behind its own pawns. With the pawn on g6, the bishop on h5 can be trapped by 1. g4!. With the pawns on dark squares, the same idea only draws.

Exercise

White to move. Win or draw? (The black pawns now stand on dark squares.)

Practice

Copy the position into any board or engine to practice it:

2B3k1/5p1p/6p1/7b/8/3K2P1/5P1P/8 w - - 0 1

Opposite-Colored Bishops

Goal

Hold the draw with bishops of opposite colors by guarding the queening square with the bishop.

Idea

The white pawn on c7 is one step from queening, but the queening square c8 is a light square and Black's bishop is light-squared. The bishop guards c8 from the diagonal h3-c8 and shuttles along it, while White's dark-squared bishop and king cannot drive it away. With bishops of the same color, White would win.

Technique

1. Put the bishop on the color of the queening square, so it can guard it.
2. Keep it on the long diagonal of the queening square: ... ♝h3+, ... ♝c8.
3. The attacker's bishop controls the other color, so it cannot attack the defender's bishop.
4. Do not count on a single extra pawn: with opposite-colored bishops it is rarely enough to win.

Typical mistake

Expecting the extra pawn to win. Even a pawn on the seventh rank cannot queen here, because the defender's bishop controls the queening square.

Exercise

White to move. Win or draw?

Practice

Copy the position into any board or engine to practice it:

2K5/2P5/8/2k5/7B/8/8/5b2 w - - 0 1

Wrong Rook Pawn

Goal

Know that a rook pawn with the wrong bishop only draws once the defending king reaches the corner.

Idea

The pawn queens on h8, a dark square, but White's bishop is light-squared. The black king goes to the corner and moves between h8 and g8, and the white pieces cannot force it out. With a dark-squared bishop on e3, the same position is a win: 1. ♔g6 ♚g8 2. ♗c5 ♚h8 3. h6 ♚g8 4. h7+ ♚h8 5. ♗d4#.

Technique

1. Look at the pawn: a rook pawn queens in a corner.
2. Compare the color of the corner with the color of the bishop. If they match, the bishop controls the corner and the position wins.
3. If they differ, the defender goes to the corner and shuffles between two squares, and the position is a draw.
4. When you push the pawn, avoid giving stalemate.

Typical mistake

Counting the extra pawn and the bishop without checking the color of the corner. Here the bishop is light-squared and the corner dark, so there is no win.

Exercise

White to move. Win or draw? (A mirrored version, with the pawn on the a-file.)

Practice

Copy the position into any board or engine to practice it:

7k/8/5K2/7P/8/3B4/8/8 w - - 0 1

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