Mates with bishops

How to spot it

Bishops mate from a distance, which makes their mates easy to miss. In Boden’s mate two bishops attack the king on criss-crossing diagonals: typically a king on c8 (after castling long) with one bishop on a6 and another on f4 or a3, while its own rook and pieces on d8 and d7 block the escape.

In the Opera mate a bishop guards the escape square while a rook mates on the back rank (Morphy’s Rd8 with the bishop on g5 covering e7). In Morphy’s and Pillsbury’s mates a rook on the open g-file teams up with a bishop on the long diagonal against a castled king. In Greco’s mate a bishop on c4 (or c5) seals g8 (or g1) while the queen or rook checks along the h-file.

What to look for: long open diagonals pointing at the enemy king, and a queen sacrifice that opens one. A queen exchanged or sacrificed for a pawn on c6, c3 or b8 often frees the diagonal or forces a piece onto a flight square. Double checks with a bishop are especially strong.

Puzzles

11 puzzles, rated 850 to 1850. A wrong move shows the engine’s refutation, and a missed puzzle comes back for review.