How to do a "Two-Bishop vs. King" Mate?

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Nom673

Hello, everybody! Does anybody know how to checkmate with Two bishops vs. a lone king?

tooWEAKtooSL0W

Try to bring your king as close to the enemy king as you can, and then use your king and bishops to push their king to the edge of the board. Then put the bishops on adjacent diagonals and roll their king to the corner (kind of like how you checkmate with 2 rooks, but on diagonals instead of files), while using your king to stop them from leaving the edge.

Nom673
tooWEAKtooSL0W wrote:

Try to bring your king as close to the enemy king as you can, and then use your king and bishops to push their king to the edge of the board. Then put the bishops on adjacent diagonals and roll their king to the corner (kind of like how you checkmate with 2 rooks, but on diagonals instead of files), while using your king to stop them from leaving the edge.

Ok, I'll try that when I am going to play a game.

AussieMatey

The chance of you getting that ending in a game are 673(000)/1.

Nom673
AussieRookie wrote:

The chance of you getting that ending in a game are 673(000)/1.

What do these numbers mean?

AussieMatey

It's very rare, maybe in the thousands for some players, that you'll actually have to do a 2 Bishop mate - but it's good to know it.  

tooWEAKtooSL0W
AussieRookie wrote:

The chance of you getting that ending in a game are 673(000)/1.

 

Definitely not that low.... maybe like 5,000/1

Michael-Holm

Here's an easy way to do it. Position your Bishops side by side and then inch them forward to force the enemy King as far back as possible. Then move your King forward and force their King all the way to the edge. Move your King to the closest corner and then use your Bishops to drive the enemy King to the corner while your King stops him from escaping. He's an example:



MickinMD

The odds of getting the exact same material in a real game are low, but the opportunity to use 2 Bishops in a similar manner to mate or make a threat that weakens your opponent are relatively frequent.

Look here, http://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html for interactive examples of the Double Bishop Mate (2 Bishops on parallel diagonals) and Boden's Mate (2 Bishops on criss-crossing diagonals) where more Pieces are also on the board.

AeolianHarp

Here's a blog post on the topic: https://www.chess.com/blog/Jpatrick/pawnless-endings-part-1.

Khalayx

You can practice this in the Drills section also, just fyi. Blitz it against the computer until you know you could handle it while low on time OTB.

LiberalVegan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uimbIq9h_7A