A bishop endgame has only kings, bishops and pawns left on the board. The bishop can cross the board in one move but can never leave its own colour of squares, and almost every idea in these endings follows from that. Every puzzle on this page is a bishop endgame from a real game, matched to your puzzle rating.
When both bishops run on the same colour, they fight over the same squares, and an extra pawn or a more active king is often enough to win. When they run on opposite colours, each side controls squares the other can never contest. A blockading bishop cannot be driven off, and these endings are often drawn even when one side is a pawn or two up.
With opposite-coloured bishops, the stronger side's best chance is two passed pawns far apart, which one king and one bishop may not be able to hold together. The defender aims for a blockade on squares of their own bishop's colour.
A bishop is called bad when its own pawns are fixed on its colour, blocking its diagonals. A good bishop has its pawns on the other colour and open lines in front of it. The usual advice follows: put your pawns on the opposite colour to your bishop, so that the two cover different squares.
In same-coloured bishop endings this has a second benefit. Pawns on the other colour cannot be attacked by either bishop, so your opponent's bishop cannot pick them off.
One ending every player should recognise is a bishop and a rook pawn against a lone king. If the bishop does not control the corner square where the pawn promotes, and the defending king reaches that corner, the game is a draw.
White: king g6, bishop d3, pawn h7. Black: king h8, with Black to move. Black has no legal move and is not in check, so it is stalemate. The h8 square is dark and the bishop runs on light squares, so it can never drive the king out of the corner. With a dark-squared bishop the same material usually wins. And since a bishop alone cannot mate, a defender who can give up a piece for the last pawn also reaches a draw.
Bring the king forward early: with so little material it is often the strongest piece on the board. Use the bishop from a distance. It can stop a passed pawn from the far side of the board by covering a square in the pawn's path, and it can guard a pawn and wait at the same time.
Many of these puzzles turn on one of three ideas: a waiting bishop move that keeps control of the same diagonal and leaves the other side in zugzwang, a pawn break that creates a passed pawn the enemy bishop cannot reach, or a bishop given up for the last pawns to reach a won pawn endgame.
The first is trading down to a rook pawn and the wrong-coloured bishop and expecting to win. The second is leaving pawns on the same colour as your own bishop, where they block it and can become targets for the enemy bishop. The third is keeping the king passive and asking the bishop to do everything alone.
Endgame puzzles tend to run longer than most tactics, because the point is technique over several moves rather than one shot. Before each move, note which colour each bishop controls and where the passed pawns are heading. If you are stuck, the hint first shows the piece, then the move, and the full line appears beside the board after you solve.
To find which endings you actually reach and score worst in, use the Endgame Trainer, which trains the weakest type first. For mixed tactics at your level, use Puzzle Training; for speed, Puzzle Storm; and for repetition of a fixed set, the Woodpecker Method. Elo Maxing rates you on every tactical motif and serves the weakest next, and Pattern Drill builds practice from the patterns your own games show you miss. To find where your endgames go wrong, read how to review your chess games.
An ending where only kings, bishops and pawns are left on the board.
Each bishop controls squares the other can never reach, so the defender can often set up a blockade that cannot be broken, even a pawn or two down.
A bishop that does not control the promotion square of a rook pawn. If the defending king reaches that corner, bishop and rook pawn cannot win.
A bishop blocked by its own pawns fixed on its colour. Putting your pawns on the opposite colour to your bishop avoids it.
These puzzles train bishop endings at your rating. The Endgame Trainer starts from your own games and trains the endings where you score lowest.