Basic checkmates

Two bishops checkmate: the method

Updated · Sergei Tovmasian

Short answer

Put the bishops on adjacent squares so their diagonals form a wall, bring your king up to push, and herd the lone king into any corner you like. The mate is one bishop giving check on the long diagonal while the other covers the square beside the king and your king holds the rest. Nineteen moves at most.

Bishops hate working alone and love working in pairs. Put them next to each other and they build a fence across the whole board that no king can cross.

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h 1
Bishops side by side on d4 and e4. Their four diagonals cut the board apart, and the black king on b8 can never step over the barrier.

That is the whole idea. The bishops make a wall, your king pushes from behind it, the wall advances square by square, and the lone king runs out of room in a corner. Nineteen moves at most from the worst possible start, and any of the four corners will do, which is what makes this ending far friendlier than bishop and knight.

Driving him to the edge

Keep the bishops side by side, on adjacent squares of a rank or a file, so that their diagonals cross and there is no gap to slip through. Then move your own king towards the lone king rather than towards the corner. His king can only retreat along the wall, and every time your king gains a square you slide the wall forward with it.

Do not chase him with checks. Checks are how you spend twenty moves getting nowhere with any of the basic mates. The bishops are fences here, not weapons, until the very end.

The final picture

The mate itself is worth memorising as a shape, because you can then aim for it from a long way out. The lone king sits in the corner, one bishop checks along the long diagonal into that corner, the other bishop covers the square next door, and your king guards the two remaining flights.

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h 1
White king g6, bishops on d6 and f3. 1.Bd5+ takes f8 and g8 away, so the king must go to h8, and 2.Be5 is mate on the long diagonal.

Look at how little work the bishops are doing at the end. The white king on g6 covers f7, g7 and h7 all by itself. The light bishop on d5 covers g8. The dark bishop on e5 gives the check. Three pieces, three jobs, no overlap.

I will be honest about the difficulty. The first time you try this against a defender who runs sideways rather than into the corner you will wander, and that is normal. Set it up with the bishops on c1 and f1, your king on e1 and the black king on e5, and mate it three or four times. After the third attempt the wall stops being an idea and starts being something your hand does. And if you are choosing which minor pieces to keep in a real game, the reason strong players fight for the bishop pair is exactly the coordination you have just practised.

More questions

Which corner do you use for the two bishop mate?

Any of the four. Between them the bishops cover both colours, so nothing is out of reach, and you should simply drive the king towards whichever corner he is already closest to. This is the big practical difference from bishop and knight, where only two of the four corners can ever be mated in.

How many moves does the two bishop mate take?

Nineteen at most with perfect play from the worst starting position, and usually far fewer. That is comfortably inside the fifty-move rule, but it is enough that a player who has never practised the ending can burn a lot of clock finding it. Half an hour against an engine set to defend is a good investment.

Do the bishops have to be on different colours?

Yes, and in a normal game they are, because each side starts with one light-squared and one dark-squared bishop. Two bishops of the same colour, which can only come from a promotion, cannot force mate at all: half the board is invisible to them and the lone king simply sits on a square they can never attack.

Go deeper

Practise these mates on real positions. The app serves thousands, matched to your rating.

← All: Basic checkmates · Learn chess