Checkmate with two bishops

Two bishops and a king can mate a lone king. The bishops take one color each, and your king drives the enemy king into a corner.

  1. Keep the bishops on adjacent diagonals so they form a fence the king cannot cross.
  2. Use your king to take away squares. The bishops cannot cover the square next to them on the same color as the king stands.
  3. Drive the king toward a corner. Mate on the edge in the center of a rank is not available the way it is with a rook, because the bishops do not control both colors of the flight squares there.
  4. The diagram is the last move of that net: the bishop checks, and the other bishop together with the king covers the remaining squares.

On the board

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

Starting position.

Bishop endgame puzzles

These are puzzles tagged for that material, not a claim that every one is this exact ending. Theme page

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