Skip to content
PointChess
Lessons

Guided lesson · Intermediate · Endgames

Opposite-coloured bishops: two pawns up and a draw

Loading puzzles…

Text

There's one situation in chess where counting material stops working: when each side has a single bishop and they're on opposite colours. Those two bishops will never meet on a square, so neither defends against the other and, above all, neither can chase the other off wherever it plants itself. That turns the weaker side's bishop into a perfect barrier: if it can watch the squares the enemy pawns have to pass through, those pawns never get through — it doesn't matter whether there are one, two or three of them. It's the endgame where the most won games slip away and the most lost games get saved, and in both cases for the same reason: people count pawns instead of looking at the colour of the squares.

The key idea

With opposite-coloured bishops, what decides isn't how many pawns you have: it's whether the defending bishop can watch the queening squares. Pawns close together, even two of them, get blockaded by a bishop and a king. SEPARATED passed pawns win, because one bishop can't reach both ends of the board at once.

Example 1 · Two pawns up, and there's no way through

White is two pawns ahead. The black bishop on b7 watches c6 and d5 at the same time, and that's enough to draw.

  1. Ke5 Before moving, count the material: I'm two pawns up. Now look at the squares my pawns have to pass through — c6 and d5 — and notice that both are light, the colour of the black bishop. That bishop, from b7, watches both without moving. There's the whole game.
  2. Ke7 The black king takes up position opposite. The defence in these endgames divides like this: the bishop handles the squares of its own colour and the king handles the others.
  3. Bh6 I manoeuvre with my bishop looking for a diagonal from which to support the advance. And here's what makes this endgame unique: my bishop is dark-squared, so it will NEVER be able to defend c6 or d5. I can put it wherever I like — I won't touch those two squares all game.
  4. Kd7 The king goes back to its post. It doesn't have to do anything except be there.
  5. Bf8 I keep trying diagonals. Notice that Black doesn't need to calculate anything: he just keeps the bishop on the a8-h1 diagonal and the king in front of the other pawn.
  6. Ba8 And the bishop simply shuttles between b7 and a8, never leaving the diagonal that matters. Drawn, two pawns down. The engine confirms it: it gives White less than a pawn's worth of evaluated advantage, and that's with two extra pawns on the board. When you see opposite-coloured bishops, stop counting and look at the colours of the squares.

Example 2 · When it does win: separated pawns

The same opposite-coloured bishops, but now the pawns are on b5 and f5, at opposite ends. One bishop can't be in two places.

  1. Be2 The same material as in the previous example and a completely different evaluation: here the engine says clear win. The only thing that has changed is the distance between my pawns — one on b5 and one on f5, with five files between them.
  2. Be5 The black bishop tries to cover both queening squares from the long diagonal, which is his best try.
  3. Bf3 And I contest it. The arithmetic of this endgame is this: my opponent has ONE piece to watch TWO pawns advancing on opposite sides, plus a king that can't be in two places either. Sooner or later one of them gets through.
  4. Bg3 The bishop looks for another diagonal from which to reach both pawns.
  5. Bh5 I keep manoeuvring to drive it off the good diagonal. With separated pawns there's no hurry: the defender can't improve his position, only wait.
  6. Bh4 And he keeps trying, which is all he can do.
  7. Be8 My bishop takes up position to support the b5 pawn's advance while the other one waits its turn on f5.
  8. Ke7 The black king has to choose a side, and that's the moment the other pawn sets off. Keep the complete rule, which is the one to know: with opposite-coloured bishops, two pawns TOGETHER are usually a draw and two SEPARATED pawns usually win. The distance between them is worth more than their number.

Practice

Opposite-coloured bishops and two passed pawns, but this time separated by half the board. Manoeuvre with the bishop to contest the diagonal he's watching both from.

  1. The same material as in the drawing example, and here it wins: what changes is that your pawns are at opposite ends. Reposition your bishop onto the diagonal that supports the b-pawn's advance.
  2. You contest the long diagonal. He has one piece for two pawns advancing on opposite sides. Take the long diagonal his bishop is using to watch both your pawns.
  3. No hurry. The defender can't improve his position, only wait for you to decide. Keep manoeuvring to drive him off the good diagonal.
  4. And the bishop takes up position to escort the b-pawn while the f-pawn waits its turn. The black king will have to choose a side. Put the bishop where it supports the queenside pawn's advance.

Keep both faces together, because one without the other misleads: with opposite-coloured bishops, two pawns side by side almost never win — the bishop watches one queening square and the king the other — and two separated pawns almost always do, because one bishop can't be at both ends of the board. When you see this endgame in your own games, the first question isn't how many pawns there are: it's what colour the squares they have to pass through are, and how far apart they are.