Checkmating With Two Bishops | Chess Endgames

The two bishop mate is much simpler than mating with knight and bishop, but it still requires a little finesse to do it properly and in as little moves as possible.

If you would like to support my quest to chess improvement and receive extra content, in depth information on each daily video, as well as exercises and problems to solve, consider becoming a patron. For more information, visit:

Checkmating with two bishops is fairly simple. But if you know what you’re doing it’s incredibly easy! This lesson should serve as a set of reminders as to which steps you need to take to accomplish checkmate easily and in a low number of moves.

1. Move your king up the board as much as possible. You need to take control of the board with your king first, thus cutting off your opponent’s king, and only then bring in your bishops as reinforcements – when you cannot advance your king any further.

2. You want to force the king to the back rank (any back rank, horizontally or vertically). To do that, you need to use the power of the two bishops who compliment themselves and control both color complexes. Use the bishops to restrain the opponent’s king, forcing him back down the board.

3. Force the king into a corner (any corner). Once the king is on the back rank, you want to use your bishops and your king to force it into a corner for the checkmate.

4. Use a waiting move when your opponent is in the corner. Leave him one empty square to move to to make sure you don’t stalemate! You put him in Zugzwang by making a waiting move and forcing your opponent to move.

#chess

36 Comments

  1. Very well explained , thanks a lot!

  2. Who ks here after drawing a game with 2 bishops 😂… 1min on the clock and while I got him to backrang I was not able to find a mate.

  3. Thank you for this, Stjepan. I'm winning a king/pawn endgame right now because i finally know what I'm doing cause of this!

  4. please make more king gambit

  5. Hi mate, I tried check mate with Knight + bishop against stockfish level 8. After several attempts I checkmated it with 39 moves.

  6. In 14:48 the king could've gone to g7.Not that it has any importance but I believe it would be easier for you to play against the computer😁

  7. Very helpful, a great addition to my library thanks

  8. Thank you for this video, Stjepan. Even I could understand it, my hopes are rising considering chess :). I especially liked the practical part <3. No, seriously: I think that only people who really know what they are talking about can explain it in the simplest way so that everybody can understand… but… poor black king, all alone on the board 🙁

  9. Hello,
    Are there any online chess tournament through which I can become a professional chess player?

  10. Another very useful and knowledge filled video. Your ability to explain ideas at a beginner to intermediate level is part of what makes these vids so helpful. If I might ask a question. What is a mating net? I know it is a very simple question but for some reason I just don't know and i've never found a great beginner level explanation. Obviously it has something to do with checkmating and I think a mating net happens over a series of moves and not in a single move but beyond this I do not know.

  11. Best instructive chess channel on YouTube. Thank you, Stjepan!

  12. Incredible, but I have a question, what is a zugzwang?

  13. Thanks for the explanation! I've tried against Stockfish in the past but never managed to consistently avoid drawing until after watching this video.

    It made me chuckle at 13:10 to see I'm not the only one who wants to move his bishop beyond the edge of the board in this exercise 🙂

  14. awesome its not as easy as it seams haha. cool thanks.

  15. You explain the 2 bishop mate the best. Its just reasoning. Take away the kings squares

  16. Hi everyone, I just saw this video and tried on the Lichess app with stockfish level 8. I couldn't win the game. But this video helps me a bit better to gain confidence and also more information that this video. I am not degrading anyone but helping you people to learn this trick.
    https://youtu.be/MOzHYiiDjto

  17. Thamls. i really learned something here, mated fishy lvl 8 easily after this video

  18. (14:51) This will give the King the g7 square and I think the pattern calls for a King move as a waiting move. Perhaps Kf5 heading to h6

  19. Everytime I get in a twi bishop king vs king end game I always stalemate any advice?

  20. Best chess YouTube channel, this man breaks down and explains concepts in an intuitive and in dept. manner

  21. Your explanation immediately taught me how to get past this topic quickly. (Better than a popular IM authored course on the same subject I was struggling with too I might add). Thank you for helping me learn basic endgame mates (easily) so that I can get through this boring stuff and get back to chess middlegames where the real fun is 🙂

  22. Thank you so much, now I can check mate with 2 bishops only in 19 to 22 moves 😍😍😍

  23. Great work, Out of all the chess channels, yours is the best learning wise.. Keep it up

  24. I mean, my opinion doesn't count but says:

    12:04 I managed to checkmate black with 16 moves. What I found useful is restricting black's king with moves Be4 and Bf4. Now the king is in a triangle he cannot escape. Then you move your king closer. I played against maximum stockfish lvl btw. Here's the whole notation:

    1.Be4 Ke7
    2.Bf4 Ke8
    3.Kd2 Ke7
    4.Kd3 Kf6
    5.Kd4 Ke6
    6.Be5 Ke7
    7.Kd5 Kd7
    8.Bf5+ Ke8
    9.Ke6 Kd8
    10.Kf6 Ke8
    11.Bc7 Kf8
    12.Bd7 Kg8
    13.Kg6 Kf8
    14.Bd6+ Kg8
    15.Be6+ Kh8
    16.Be5#

  25. when you start to understand the concept i came up with some rulez for myself. If king ever can attack my bishop I have done an error. You always make him enter a corner and from there its intuative, you cant go wrong if you take your time. Kings final position is always two steps from corner as well.

  26. Its Zugswangs btw not zugswans, great video…have watched many and this was the best.

  27. I made it in 11 moves from this FEN
    4k3/8/8/8/8/8/4K3/4BB2 b – – 1 1

    1. Ke2 Ke7 2. Ke3 Kd6 3. Ke4 Kc5 4. Ke5 Kc6 5. Bb4 Kb7 6. Kd6 Kb6 7. Bc4 Ka7 8.

    Kc7 Ka8 9. Kc8 Ka7 10. Bc5+ Ka8 11. Bd5# 1-0

  28. Kimjjjm.lz . Solzpsldlslssskmx.xso,dispossessed.dp

  29. one thing to notice (i do mate in less 30 moves with this method) when bishops are ajacent the king cant attack put them ajacent 3 ranks from a side, then just walk around with your king to get opposition and from there its easy. Normally I mate in not more than 25 moves. It goes very fast as well, i can do it in time pressure as well.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.