If you have an interest in the endgame for the King and two Bishops against a King, then this game collection is meant for you. Here is grist for the mill-- actual games, rather than mere theoretical positions. Now you can use these games as practical cases to compare and contrast methods of effecting mate. Now you have evidence of blunders, inefficient schemes and outright failures in the various processes of bringing this mate, as well as sterling performances.

The details for those processes may be found elsewhere. Only general points underlying the Lonely Two-Bishops Mate will be covered here, as the first stage for those who are motivated enough to undertake its study. I do contend that it is worthwhile to seek out the means of conducting this endgame, although some of the foremost writers (and YouTube presenters) will omit its coverage-- they consider it too simple to prepare relevant and helpful material.

Some experts and masters suggest that there is some ambiguity about when the endgame starts. However, I maintain that the Lone King position is definitive as the beginning of the endgames of King and Two Bishops and the King with Bishop and Knight.

The "Lone King position" (LK) refers to that situation in the game where the defending King has no team members and no Pawns are on left on the board at all. The players just have the four chessmen-- two Kings and two (oppositely-colored) Bishops. The counting for the 50-Move Rule starts there as well.

It is not trivial to specify that the Bishops must be of opposite colors. Chess databases will have games where Promotion to a second Bishop would only generate one of the same color. A King with two Bishops of the same color against a King is a known Draw by Insufficient Material, indeed. Do not blunder into such a draw by arrogantly and prematurely choosing Under-Promotion to a Bishop, then!

It is of practical interest to note that any Lone King position can only be reached by a capture, whether made by the attacking chessmen or the other King. One of the attackers may even make a capture with check that brings about the Lone King position. Even though the Lonely Two-Bishops Mate is rare, a special case of one by a Capture Checkmate, the most powerful form of capture, is available in this game collection-- E Smirnova vs R Obregon Garcia, 2021. At any rate, once the mate is known, this factoid makes it easy to peruse the game score backwards and locate the Lone King position, as it will be the last capture for the given game.

Further, the phrase "Lonely ... Mate" is an emphatic means of referring to the mating nets and concluding patterns that result from Lone King positions--- only the defending King is left on the board for that "team."

The process of the mate with two Bishops and King alone against a Lone King is rare, but it is still among the fundamental endgames. Tarrasch does not cover it at all in his classical and worthwhile work, The Game of Chess. Other masters do, with GM Nakamura on YouTube even depicting the Bishops as two wizards using brilliantly bright blasts of power from their hands to corral the opposed King! Such a dramatic visualization serves well to illustrate the initial idea of the reducing the range and space of the King. After that, one must send the King to the last rank. Next, one must send that King into a corner (or next door to it, but not on the diagonal). Lastly, use one's chessmen as a team to cause the mate.

My position is in agreement with those experts and masters who posit that the Lonely Two Bishops Mate and the Lonely Knight and Bishop Mate should be taught by chess coaches and tutors. Not for beginners, of course, but everyone else should at least be exposed to these mating processes. Intermediate chess players and above should become acquainted with the process behind this mate. There are cases where experts and even masters have flubbed this process, dropping into various kinds of draws, instead. High-caliber players have even brought a stalemate or, worse yet, lost a Bishop. However, Chess Coach Clark has seen U14 players successfully win from the Lone King positions and even a few U8 players have done so as well.

Do note that the Lonely Two-Bishops Mate is quite different from the Boden's Mate (the "criss-cross mate"). The board may have several chessmen emplaced for any Boden's Mate and the Bishops would be attacking from different angles, whereas the Lonely Two-Bishops Mate has the Bishops attacking from the same angle.

The Lonely Two Bishops Mate is also different from the Raking Bishops Mate in most cases. There may be many chessmen on the board and the King may not be an essential supporter for the final position of the Raking Bishops Mate. In both patterns the Bishops are proceeding in the same angle, however.

Important points to remember about the Lonely Two Bishops Mate:

....... One must bring the defending King to the corner or an edge square adjacent to the corner.

....... The color of the square for the "last stand" of the King does not matter.

....... The Kings will be in close Opposition-- the Bishops must have the help of the King. In fact, in some cases, the King must be a defender for one or both of the Bishops as well as cutting off escape squares.

....... The famous chess authors Müller and Lamprecht declared that maximum length of the solution of an L2B Mate is M19 and they specified this position as one of the worst cases:

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See FUNDAMENTAL CHESS ENDINGS, page 400.

The best factor we can draw from this limit is that you can do it before the 50-Move Rule applies, if you handle the processing properly.

There are cases when this mate can be made on an edge square near the middle of a side of the board, yet it will be due to a blunder by the defender-- it cannot be forced.

IM Reuben Fine described this position as being one of those cases:

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See BASIC CHESS ENDINGS (1941, p. 3).

Here is an unusual mate position with similarities from the position IM Fine gave:

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See Smirnova vs Obregon, Internet 2021, 74 moves

E Smirnova vs R Obregon Garcia, 2021.

This game ends with a Capture Mate, which is why it does not have one of the two common mate pattern types.

Here are the more common classes of Lonely Two-Bishops Mates, being described with the type of Opposition illustrated at the end-- remember that Opposition is a continuing important tactic to employ throughout the process of gaining this mate.

An example of a mate with Direct Opposition on a rank with the King in the corner:

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See the continuation to mate of Hoang vs Hjelm, Budapest 1993, 57 moves

T T Hoang vs N Hjelm, 1993.

An example of a mate with Direct Opposition on a file with the King in the corner:

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See Oosterman vs Hetey, Maastricht 2009, 78 moves.

An example of a mate with Rectangular Opposition on ranks with the King in the corner:

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See Solleveld vs Sutovsky, Amsterdam 2001, 107 moves

M Solleveld vs Sutovsky, 2001

This is a demonstration of Direct Opposition on a rank while the King is next to the corner:

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See Gukesh vs. Timoleev, Internet 2020, 74 moves

D Gukesh vs A Timofeev, 2020.

Now for a case of Direct Opposition in a file with the King next to the corner:

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See Garcia Sanchez vs Basto Auzmendi, Erandio 2004, 79 moves.

Consider a position with Rectangular Opposition on ranks with the King next to the corner.

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Note that this position appears to be theoretical. It may never be found in any actual game.

This position has Rectangular Opposition on files with the King next to the corner.

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Again, this position seems only theoretical. It may never be found in any actual game.

The Lonely Two Bishops Mate is a demonstration of the teamwork with the Bishops. It also helps with visualization skills for the zones or fences made by the overlapping paths of the Bishops. Looking ahead-- planning-- for how to respond to one's opponent, when to use the Waiting Move and to avoid any chance of a stalemate is another vital skill, not just for this endgame but in general play as well. There's a certain beauty to the sequence of moves and their areas of coverage that is appealing, also.

Chess Coach Clark originated this game collection in October 2023 and he updates it on occasion. This project is a work in progress, culling games from various sources, including several chess training books and personal research. It would be great if the Endgame Explorer were updated-- there are NO draws/failures in it for now. So, this collection does include the limited number of games from that resource.

Sadly, there are several games collected where a top-notch player has brought a draw. Incredibly, some STALEMATES have also been done by high-level players! An even higher number of high-level games have inefficient lines. This game collection will also examine its member games for their efficiency, noting with Mgg <==> Mqq as the actual length then the expected length of the "solution." Every performance evaluation is made using results from Stockfish 16 analysis or the Nalimov EGTBs from the LK position. The theoretical maximum is M19 (noted later, with a diagram as well). Thus, no game should have a solution with M20 or higher. Here is the specific grading criteria:

Solid ("perfect") ._._._._._._._. Actual equals or is less than Expected

Good ._._._._._._._._._._._._._. Actual = Expected +1 or +2

Poor ._._._._._._._._._._._._._. Actual = Expected +3 or +4

Very Poor ._._._._._._._._._._. Actual = Expected +5 or more

Failed ._._._._._._._._._._._._. Draw (of any type)

The resolution of most performance evaluations-- for now-- is by simple observation only. That is, it may not include analysis of the actual quality of play on both sides. So, if the winner and/or defender are making making miss-steps, it will not be reflected in the performance evaluation, as it is a simple comparison of (overall) play against the empirical/Stockfish or theoretical/Nalimov expectations-- raw, not refined. However, the ranges are set for better resolution. To wit, the Solid grade is expressed with the Actual less than or equal to Expected specification, which accommodates for miss-steps with its less-than condition.

The games are ordered by date (oldest first), not by importance.

L2B is the abbreviation for the Lonely Two Bishops Mate.

=B= indicates that the Black pieces won the game. ----- Always practice on BOTH sides of the board!

=M= indicates the game concluded with the mate.

=K= indicates that a King Hunt was done.

=U= indicates one player was U14 or even much younger.

=W= indicates both players were women.

=H= indicates that a King Hunt happened.

=S= indicates that the game ended with a Stalemate!

=50= indicates that the 50-Move Rule was exceeded.

Be well.
Be safe.