Opposite Bishops: The E- and F-Pawn Cage

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

An opposite-colored-bishop ending can be winning even with both pawns still on their starting rank. The e-pawn and f-pawn pair is the special case: advanced to e5 and f4 they build a cage that shuts a dark-squared bishop out of play.

Build the cage. Push f4, then e4-e5. With pawns on e5 and f4 the long dark diagonal is cut, and the bishop cannot reach the good defensive squares. Black still reaches his usual defensive set-up and still loses, because with the long diagonal cut the bishop can never come to the b8-h2 diagonal in front of the pawns.

Zugzwang inside the cage. The bishop must stay near g7 and h6 to guard the front squares, but there it has almost no moves. The white king marches Kg5-g6-h7 and the bishop is squeezed until it is lost. One warning: do not push f5 while the bishop still reaches g7, or Black blockades and draws.

In this drill the defender will shuffle the bishop and wait. Set the cage, walk the king in, and take the last square from the bishop.