The Bishop Pair Advantage

The advantage of the two bishops (when facing a bishop and knight or two knights) is a favorite of many masters. When working together, the two bishops can really dominate the chessboard.

If you are reading this instead of viewing a chess puzzle or game, then you must enable JavaScript on this website.

[Event "AVRO"]
[Site "AVRO"]
[Date "1938.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Botvinnik, M."]
[Black "Capablanca, J."]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Hayes, David"]
[BlackElo "unknown"]
[ECO "E49"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "unknown"]

{ This game stands out as GM Mikhal Botvinnik's best primarily because of his
double piece sacrifice late in the game. The sacrifice leads to a position
where he must fight off a long series of checks before he can promote a pawn
for the win.|Enjoy! } 1. d4 { E49: Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 5 Bd3 d5 6 a3
Bxc3+ 7 bxc3 } 1... Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Bd3 O-O 9. Ne2 b6 10. O-O Ba6 11. Bxa6 Nxa6 12. Bb2 Qd7 13. a4 Rfe8 14. Qd3 c4 { Black gains space. } 15. Qc2 Nb8 { The idea is Na6-b8-c6-a5-b3. } 16. Rae1 Nc6 17. Ng3 Na5 18. f3 { Prepares a center push with e4. } 18... Nb3 { Praise
the knight! } 19. e4 Qxa4 20. e5 Nd7 21. Qf2 g6 { Prevents intrusion on f5 and
h5. } 22. f4 f5 23. exf6 Nxf6 24. f5 Rxe1 25. Rxe1 Re8 26. Re6 Rxe6 27. fxe6 { The passed pawn on e6 will quickly become a dangerous weapon. } 27... Kg7 28. Qf4 Qe8 29. Qe5 Qe7 30. Ba3 Qxa3 31. Nh5+ gxh5 32. Qg5+ Kf8 33. Qxf6+ Kg8 34. e7 Qc1+ 35. Kf2 Qc2+ 36. Kg3 Qd3+ { Having won the queenside, black is now
desperate to bring defensive resources to protect his king. } ( { Black can
try: } 36... Qxc3+ 37. Kh4 Qe1+ 38. Kxh5 Qe2+ 39. Kh4 Qe1+ 40. Kh3 Qe3+ 41. g3 h5 42. Qf8+ Kh7 43. e8=Q { White wins with a large material advantage. } ) 37. Kh4 Qe4+ 38. Kxh5 Qe2+ 39. Kh4 Qe4+ 40. g4 Qe1+ 41. Kh5 { Black resigns
given that white can force mate in 6 moves. } 1-0