The Power Of The Bishop Pair in Endgames

Hello dear chess players!

Today I will share with you an example to display the power of the bishop pair. The bishop pair often gains its power in endgames when there are pawns on both sides of the board as in the 23rd game in the world championship of 1951 between Botvinnik and Bronstein. Bronstein was leading by one point in the world championship before this game so it was a very relevant game.

Let us start our investigation from this diagram:

A few moves later Bronstein commits a very instructive mistake. This mistake was played on the 39th move. This is the move before the players receive additional time in accordance with the time control of this world championship. The time control was 40 moves in 2 1/2 hours, and 16 moves an hour thereafter. Hence Bronstein was likely short on time when committing this critical error.

After the previous move 57.Bg5! Bronstein thought for 40 minutes before resigning. He realized that all his available moves would worsen his position. This is the after-math of the move f5 which allowed white to open up the position which made the bishops grow in power. Notice how they are dominating the knights in the final position.

For more extensive analysis on the power of the bishop pair this game you can take a look at my full analysis of this game from move 35...Bxc1 here:

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/3p6fk3K8qk

Feel free to also learn about the power of the bishop pair using the video that I made. Frequently one remembers better when seeing something in numerous forms. That can be by reading a text and watching a video.

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-qPwnaBMV8

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