The wrong bishop: why bishop and rook's pawn can't win

A bishop and a pawn up sounds like an easy win. But with a rook's pawn and a bishop that runs on the other colour from the queening square, the "wrong bishop", it's a draw if the defending king reaches the corner. The bishop can never drive it out.

The defence, played out

You have Black. White's h-pawn queens on h8, a dark square, and White's bishop moves on light squares.

Black to move. Step through the run to the corner.

Head for the corner

1...Kf7! The only move that holds. h8 is a dark square and the bishop only covers light ones, so once Black's king is there, it can't be forced out. Moves that hang back in the centre, like 1...Kd6? or 1...Ke5?, are a step too slow: 2.h6, and the pawn gets through.

2...Kg8, on towards the corner. 2...Kf8? is the mistake here: 3.Bc4 takes g8 away from the king, and White wins.

Into the corner

3...Kh8. Now 4.h7 is stalemate: Black's king has no legal move and isn't in check. Anything else, and Black's king just shuffles between g8 and h8.

The idea to remember

With a rook's pawn and the wrong bishop, the defender only needs the corner. Attacking, check the colour before you trade into this ending: a bishop that doesn't cover the queening square may only be good for a draw.

Train it

This is one of the endgame techniques OptiChess teaches as a walkthrough: the moves play themselves until a moment that matters, then you find the move, checked against the tablebase. The same corner draws with no bishop at all: see the rook's pawn. More endings are in the chess endgame trainer.

Try it. Real positions, set at your level, every answer checked against the board. No account needed to start.

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