How many chess games you won with bishop pair? if your answer is not enough, then you must learn how to use bishop pair in chess. This is one of the deadly weapon for winning a chess game. In this post, you will learn how to play a chess game with the bishop pair.

Let’s start.

The simple idea is that Bishop needs open diagonals. You may watch a game of top grandmasters where they sacrifice a pawn or two pawns for opening bishop’s position. If you have bishop pair then you must open your bishops because it controls long diagonal and sometimes you can checkmate your opponent in the opening if you appointed both your bishops to the enemy king.

One of the other main advantages of the bishop pair is that it has great support for the passed pawn. You may use this idea in your next game. Create a passed pawn supported by your bishop.

Here is a game where you will see how a player used bishop pair against bishop and knight. Let’s watch the game.

Bishop pair game: 1

In this game, you will see how white saved his bishop pair, and how white opened position and how converted one advantage into another advantage.

[Event "Amsterdam"] [Site "?"] [Date "1950.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Trifunovic"] [Black "Van Scheltinga"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C49"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bb4 5. O-O O-O 6. d3 d6 7. Bg5 Bxc3 8. bxc3 Qe7 9. Re1 Nd8 10. d4 Ne6 11. Bc1 c5 12. Bf1 Rd8 13. d5 Nf8 14. c4 Ne8 15. g3 f5 16. exf5 Bxf5 17. Nh4 Qd7 18. f4 exf4 19. Bxf4 Ng6 20. Nxf5 Qxf5 21. Bd3 Qf6 22. Bxg6 hxg6 23. Rb1 g5 24. Be3 Rd7 25. Qg4 Rf7 26. Rf1 Qg6 27. Rxf7 Qxf7 28. Bxg5 Nc7 29. Bf4 Qf6 30. Qd1 b6 31. Qd3 Re8 32. Rf1 b5 33. cxb5 Qd4+ 34. Qxd4 cxd4 35. Bxd6 Nxb5 36. Bb4 a5 37. Bxa5 Ra8 38. Bb4 Rxa2 39. d6 Ra8 40. d7 Nc7 41. Rf8+ 1-0 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.

Bishop pair game 2:

Here is one another example against Nimzo Indian Defense where black gives up a bishop for knight. In this example, you will see how white took advantage of two bishops and in the end white converted one advantage into another advantage. Please remember this that having two bishops will not give you the direct victory you have to see and convert your bishop pair advantages into some other advantages. Let’s watch a game.

[Event "Amsterdam"] [Site "?"] [Date "1950.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Reshevsky"] [Black "Van der Berg"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E44"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Nge2 d5 6. a3 Bxc3+ 7. Nxc3 b6 8. b4 c5 9. dxc5 bxc5 10. cxd5 cxb4 11. axb4 exd5 12. Be2 Nc6 13. b5 Na5 14. Ba3 Re8 15. O-O Bf5 16. Bc5 Ne4 17. Bb4 Nxc3 18. Bxc3 Nc4 19. Qd4 Qg5 20. Qxd5 Nxe3 21. fxe3 Qxe3+ 22. Kh1 Bg6 23. Bh5 Rad8 24. Bxg6 Rxd5 25. Bxf7+ Kh8 26. Bxe8 Qxe8 27. Rxa7 Qc8 28. Rc7 Qf5 29. Kg1 1-0 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.

Two Bishops vs Two Knights

Here is one example to clarify the advantages of the bishop pair. In this game, you will see how Capablanca saved his bishop and then opened position. Let’s watch the game.

[Event "Margate"] [Site "?"] [Date "1936.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Capablanca"] [Black "Milner-Barry"] [Result "1-0"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r1r5/ppq2k2/2pp2pp/4nn2/1PPBB2P/6P1/P2Q1P2/1RR3K1 w - - 0 1"] 1. Ba1 Rg8 2. h5 Raf8 3. c5 d5 4. Bxd5+ cxd5 5. Qxd5+ Kf6 6. f4 Qc6 7. Bxe5+ Ke7 8. Bd6+ Nxd6 9. cxd6+ Qxd6 10. Re1+ Kd7 11. Qxb7+ Qc7 12. Rbd1# 1-0 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.

Conclusion:

Let’s summarize what we learned from this article. When we have bishop pair we should open the position. And we should convert one advantage into another advantage from bishop pair. That means sometimes we have to exchange our one of the bishop for some advantages into another advantage.

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