Opposite Bishops: Two Connected Passers, One Drawing Square
Black to play and draw
PlayWhite has two connected passed pawns, and you can still draw. His plan is e5-e6, then Ke5 and f5-f6, so your bishop must control e6. The rule: put the bishop where it stops one pawn and attacks the other.
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Guard e6, But From the Right Square
Black to play and draw · Hold the draw against perfect play
Waking the engine…
The theory
Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.
Two bishop moves control e6, Bd7 and Bb3, and only Bd7 holds. Watch Bb3 lose: after Bg5+ Kf7, the white king walks round by d4 and c5, and e6+ breaks through.
Opposite-colored bishops are the most drawish material in chess, but the draw is never automatic. This textbook diagram shows how narrow the path can be: the defender has one job, and two ways to do it wrong.
Read the attacker's plan first. White wants e5-e6, then Ke5 and f5-f6. His bishop is dark-squared, which means it covers f8, the f-pawn's queening square. Black's whole defense is to keep e6 under control so the plan never starts.
The square matters more than the idea. Bd7 and Bc6+ both draw. Bb3 also eyes e6, and it loses: White answers Be1, Kf4 and Bh4+, drives the black king off e7, and marches his king around on the side the black king did not take, to c5 or by g5, where a bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal cannot touch it. Then e6+ and f6 go through. Every black king move loses as well.
Why d7 holds. From the c8-h3 diagonal the bishop watches e6 with the king right beside it, so if White ever pushes, Bxe6 fxe6 Kxe6 strips the board bare. A lone bishop cannot mate.
In this drill you defend against an attacker that never lets up. Find the drawing square on move one and the half point is yours.
Keep going
Connected Passers Do Beat an Opposite-Coloured Bishop
White to play and win
Bf8, Then Give the Bishop for a Pawn
Black to play and draw
March at the Piece That Holds the Pawn
White to play and win
All 19 opposite bishops positionsFollow the full curriculum (free)