Opposite-Colored Bishop Defense: How to Hold the Draw

Watch the method: press play to see the winning idea run, or step through it move by move.

Opposite-colored bishop endings are the most drawish in chess: because the bishops never contest the same squares, the defender builds a blockade the attacker can never break. The one condition is that it is built in time.

The method. Find the square on the pawn's path that sits on your bishop's color, and guard it with the bishop and the king. Here that square is d2: Bf4 takes it from a distance, and Kc1 adds the king. The black bishop works on the other color and can do nothing about it.

Why it has to be now. The pawn is two steps from d2 and the black king stands beside it. Every bishop move other than Bf4 loses, because none of them guards d2, and d3+ followed by d2 is too fast.

Why one pawn is not enough. To win, the stronger side usually needs two well-separated passed pawns, so the defender cannot cover both colors at once. With a single pawn, or two close pawns, the draw holds as soon as that blockade stands.

In this drill you defend a pawn down. Put the bishop on the c1-h6 diagonal at once, bring the king next to d2, and if the pawn ever steps onto d2, take it with the bishop.