Same coloured bishop endgames – Capablanca’s rule for same coloured bishop endings is that you should try to put your pawns on the opposite coloured square to your bishop, and fix your opponent’s pawns on the same colour as their bishop. This will give your bishop maximum scope, restrict your opponents bishop and create targets in their position. Play is then dependant on manoeuvering to attack the opponents weak pawns with king and bishop.
In this week’s thematic endgame (22/01) we looked at a same coloured bishop ending from a game between Polguaevsky and Mecking, from the 1971 Mar del Plata tournament with white to play after black’s move 32. Polguaevsky gives an object lesson in how to play these positions.
(8001) Lev Polugaevsky – Henrique Mecking [A11]
Mar del Plata ARG (1), 22.03.1971
1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.b3 Nbd7 6.Bb2 Bd6 7.d4 0–0 8.Bd3 Re8 9.Qc2 e5 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.dxe5 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 Bxe5 13.Ne2 Qd6 14.Bxe5 Qxe5 15.0–0 Bd7 16.Nd4 Rac8 17.Qe2 Qd6 18.Qb2 a6 19.Rac1 Ng4 20.Nf3 Qb6 21.Rxc8 Rxc8 22.Rc1 Nf6 23.Rxc8+ Bxc8 24.Qc3 Bd7 25.Nd4 Ne8 26.a4 Qc7 27.Qxc7 Nxc7 28.a5 Kf8 29.Kf1 Ke7 30.Ke2 g6 31.Kd2 Ne6 32.Nxe6 fxe6
We join the game after black’s 36th move when we reach a same coloured bishop ending.
33.f4 Played to start fixing black’s pawns on light squares.
33…e5 34.g3 Kd6 35.Kc3 Be6 36.Kb4 exf4 37.gxf4 Bg4 38.Kc3 Bf3 39.Kd4
White will now maintain the dark square blockade with the king and manoeuvre the bishop to attack the weakness on b7 and a7.
39…Bg2 40.h4 Bf3 41.b4 Bh1 42.Be2 Bg2 43.Bg4 Be4 44.Bc8 Kc7 45.Be6 Kd6 46.Bg8 h6 47.Bf7 h5 All blacks pawns are now on light squares.
48.Be8 Bc2 49.Bf7 Be4
White can now force an advantageous pawn exchange to get a passed pawn.
50.f5! Bxf5 51.Bxd5 Bc8 52.e4 Ke7 53.Ke5 Black is now in Zugzwang and must either give way or allow a pawn capture on g5 with a second passed pawn which will queen first in the pawn race.
53…g5 54.hxg5 h4 55.g6 h3 56.g7 h2 57.g8Q h1Q 58.Qf7+ Kd8 59.Qf8+
Black resigned as Kc7 leads to mate in 1 and Kd7 mate in 2.
1–0
For a playable version of the above game see the lichess study here:
https://lichess.org/study/Cg4rgxDA/wp7XKrP7
Opposite Coloured bishop endgames – These are notoriously drawish even when one side has one or even two pawns extra. The drawing method for the side with less material is to set up a blockade with king and bishop on the squares controlled by your bishop. This can be very difficult or impossible to break down.
In general the attacking method will be to advance as far as possible with king and pawns when there will sometimes be a sacrifice to force one of the pawns through to promote.
The defending side will try to maintain the blockade and in some cases the bishop can be sacrificed to capture the opponents remaining pawns or create a drawn position with a rook’s pawn and wrong coloured bishop which is unable to control the queening square.
(8002) Veselin Topalov – Alexey Shirov [D85]
Linares Linares ESP (10), 04.03.1998
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bb5+ c6 8.Ba4 0–0 9.Ne2 Nd7 10.0–0 e5 11.f3 Qe7 12.Be3 Rd8 13.Qc2 Nb6 14.Bb3 Be6 15.Rad1 Nc4 16.Bc1 b5 17.f4 exd4 18.Nxd4 Bg4 19.Rde1 Qc5 20.Kh1 a5 21.h3 Bd7 22.a4 bxa4 23.Ba2 Be8 24.e5 Nb6 25.f5 Nd5 26.Bd2 Nb4 27.Qxa4 Nxa2 28.Qxa2 Bxe5 29.fxg6 hxg6 30.Bg5 Rd5 31.Re3 Qd6 32.Qe2 Bd7 33.c4 Bxd4 34.cxd5 Bxe3 35.Qxe3 Re8 36.Qc3 Qxd5 37.Bh6 Re5 38.Rf3 Qc5 39.Qa1 Bf5 40.Re3 f6 41.Rxe5 Qxe5 42.Qa2+ Qd5 43.Qxd5+ cxd5
We join the game after 43 cxd5 reaching an opposite bishop ending. Topalov is intending to set up a blockade on the dark squares with king and bishop to stop both of the passed pawns.
44.Bd2 Rerouting the bishop to control the critical dark squares.
44…a4 45.Bc3 Kf7 46.h4 Ke6 47.Kg1
The bishop now controls the two passed pawns. White is planning to play the K to e3 and B to d4 to complete the fortress with the dark squares all under control. All seems well for white.
However Shirov has other ideas and now plays what is widely seen as one of the most amazing moves in chess history.
47…Bh3!!
A spectacular idea to clear the way for the black king.
48.gxh3 More or less forced as g3 weakens whites position too much.
48…Kf5 Taking advantage of the vacated f5 square to infiltrate.
49.Kf2 Ke4 50.Bxf6 d4 51.Be7 Kd3 The K moves in and the bishop can no longer control both pawns.
52.Bc5 Kc4 Gaining an important tempo.
53.Be7 Kb3
Topalov resigned at this point as Ke2 is met with Kc2. The white bishop can come to b4 but is now overloaded and one of the pawns will queen.
0–1
Tournament Results Bishop v Bishop – 23/01/22
The two thematic tournaments in the English Chess Players club can be found here.
Same Coloured Bishops (Polguyaevsky v Mecking) https://lichess.org/tournament/xmZJoiKx
Opposite Coloured Bishops (Topalov v Shirov) https://lichess.org/tournament/PXa2WMKY
Most players managed the win with white in the same coloured bishop tournament, whereas very few were able to break the dark squared blockade as black in the opposite coloured bishop ending. No one found the famous bishop sacrifice on h3 even when white players had played the pawn to h3 rather than h4.