Two bishops and two outside pawns

by Karsten Müller
11/7/2017 – Opposite-coloured bishops are a paradox. In the middlegame they favour the attacker. In the endgame they favour the defender. In fact, some endgames with opposite-coloured bishops are drawn even if one side is two pawns up. But they don't draw themselves! You still have work to do.
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Opposite-coloured bishops in the endgame can sometimes allow endgames with extra pawns to still be drawable.

 
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80.Kd2 Endgames with opposite-coloured bishops are often drawn. Even if one side is two pawns up.
Black to play and win
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Bomans,A2250Luft,D22190–12017C6345th Sparkassen Open4.3

The 7th volume of this endgame series deals with many different aspects of endgame play: the art of pawn play, weaknesses, converting an advantage, stalemate, fortresses, the art of defence and typical mistakes. Learn how to convert an extra piece or an exchange or how to exploit space advantage and better mobility. The themes the art or defence, fortress and stalemate are also intertwined. If your position has a solid fundament then you may surprisingly reach a fortress which might even be based on a stalemate.

Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine

Do you like these lessons? There are plenty more by internationally renowned endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine, where you will also find openings articles and surveys, tactics, and of course annotations by the world's top grandmasters.

Apart from his regular columns and video lectures in ChessBase Magazine there is a whole series of training DVDs by Karsten Müller, which are bestsellers in the ChessBase Shop.

Karsten Mueller

Karsten Müller regularly presents endgame lessons in the ChessBase Video Portal

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (Sinquefield Cup, FIDE Grand Prix Geneva, Biel) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 12 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.

ChessBase Magazine #180 (October/November)

The editor’s top ten: 

  1. Hou Yifan’s temptation: the ex-women’s world champion shows how, cool as ice, she countered Bacrot in the traditional tournament in Biel.
  2. Perfect start: Teimour Radjabov annotates his win with Black against the almost unbeatable Anish Giri at the Grand Prix in Geneva.
  3. "Simple is good!" Together with GM Simon Williams find the simple but strong winning moves in the game Radjabov-Eljanov. (Video)
  4. Are you as fast as Vishy Anand? With Oliver Reeh solve one of the deepest winning combinations in this issue. (Video)
  5. No simple play in the “Double English“: let GM Mihail Marin bring you up to date on the opening after 1.c4 c5.
  6. Vishy Anand and the Steckner proof: Karsten Müller presents high class technique in a classical rook ending. (Video)
  7. Brakes applied to the Accelerated Dragon: let Renato Quintiliano show you a tricky positional plan for White.
  8. Unprejudiced world champion: Peter Heine Nielsen annotates Carlsen’s successful premiere with the Bird Opening (1.f4) on the Grand Chess Tour.
  9. With the Catalan bishop against the Rubinstein French: Jonas Lampert shows you why you may hope for an advantage with 5.g3! (Video)
  10. "King in the box": enjoy the unforgettable mating patterns in Efstratrios Grivas’ FIDE training course.

Links

Karsten Müller is considered to be one of the greatest endgame experts in the world. His books on the endgame - among them "Fundamentals of Chess Endings", co-authored with Frank Lamprecht, that helped to improve Magnus Carlsen's endgame knowledge - and his endgame columns for the ChessCafe website and the ChessBase Magazine helped to establish and to confirm this reputation. Karsten's Fritztrainer DVDs on the endgame are bestsellers. The mathematician with a PhD lives in Hamburg, and for more than 25 years he has been scoring points for the Hamburger Schachklub (HSK) in the Bundesliga.

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