Can You Win With Only Two Bishops? - Calculation Part VII

There you are. You're four points up on your opponent.

You have a pawn and two bishops vs. his lone knight, and you're only one square away from promoting your lowly pawn to a mighty queen!

The game is all but yours.

Suddenly, he does the unthinkable. He sacrifices his knight for your pawn!

Against low-rated opponents, his strategy is solid.

Most casual players don't know the first thing about how to checkmate when you only have two bishops (let alone only a knight and a bishop).

If you fail to prepare for this scenario, you can let what should be an easy win slip through your fingers into a draw; an absolute disaster in this position!

After today, we'll make sure you have the knowledge and tools to win this every time in your sleep!

Winning with two bishops in an endgame is about forcing your enemy's king into the corner.

As discussed in previous blogs, knights have fewer places to run in the corner, and kings have fewer squares to run to when pushed there as well.

Let's look at a couple of quick diagrams to illustrate the point.

In the middle, the king can run to eight squares, so you must attack nine at once to deliver checkmate (including the square where the king resides).

On the edge, he can run to five, so you have to cover six.

This is easier but still more challenging to cover than the corner.

In the corner, you only have to cover the three escape squares and the fourth square the king sits on.

It seems logical in principle, but how do we do it in practice when we only have two bishops?

The answer is that we don't only have two bishops. We have two bishops and a king!

Without the king, there would be no hope.

Yes, the king is a relatively weak piece at the beginning of the game. He is only stronger than a pawn at that point. 

But in the endgame when there are only a few pieces on the board (especially when the only piece your opponent has left is their king), he is at a significantly lower risk of being attacked and becomes the protector of escape squares, the enforcer of opposition, and the fearless warrior king he was always destined to become.

But before we learn more about the king, let's look at how the bishops work together when side by side.

You'll notice there is absolutely no way that the king could ever launch an attack on either of them in this position, and his movements are quarantined to a limited portion of the board.

However, nothing is stopping him from going up and down, back and forth.

Oh, wait, that's right! We still have a king!

So the first step is to force the enemy king to the board's edge. It looks like this.

Once you force the king to the edge, you must be careful. One small mistake and his king won't be able to move at all, and it will be a draw like this:

Now that we've successfully avoided stalemate, what do we do next? 

Checkmating with bishops requires a fundamental understanding of tempo, when to waste it, and escape squares.

Let's look at where the king can move in this position.

So if it were their move, he would only be able to move along the edge and toward a corner.

But it's your move, so what do you do?

Waste a tempo by making a bishop move like this!

Okay, but now what?

Look at the escape squares he has.

What's stopping him from just going back to the same spot?

Nothing yet, but if you use your bishops to cover his new escape squares like this...

That's great, but if we don't do something soon, he has an escape square to get off the board's edge.

What do we do now?

We use our mighty warrior king to protect the escape square, naturally.

And if he tries to go back, we'll use our bishops to nudge him back in the right direction.

This is the tricky part that most beginners need to work on.

It's natural to want to continue the pattern with your bishops but look what happens if you aren't careful.

Now the black king has nowhere to run, and it's a stalemate again! Isn't that king just tricky like that?

Every time we almost have him, he turns the tables on us!

Not today!

Look at the position before the bishop moves there again.

What if it was his turn instead of ours?

That's right. It's time to waste another tempo with a bishop!

As you can see, it becomes a simple check and checkmate from there!

Now you can show your friends, family, and anyone who thinks you can't checkmate with two bishops how easy it is and how wrong they are!

I didn't want to make this article too long, so I've decided to post another one later tonight on how to checkmate with only a knight and a bishop!

Make sure to follow me for updates as we continue through our series on calculation.

If this is your first time reading one of my articles, feel free to catch up with the rest of my blog here.

We discuss the tools you need to have successful openings without memorizing numerous opening theories, middle-game strategies, and more!

Until next time, keep improving, keep learning, and most of all, enjoy every moment!

P.S. Last time, we talked about how to checkmate with a king and queen in the simplest way, but if you want to see how a grandmaster would checkmate with a king and queen, try this puzzle and see if you have what it takes! 

HINT: I couldn't put in multiple variations even though there were several moves that would have been correct for move 5 so you'll have to move to c8 at that point.

Good luck!