The blockade is the key defensive technique in opposite-coloured bishop endings: the defending bishop plants itself in front of the passed pawns on squares of its own colour and stops them dead, while the king guards the squares of the other colour.
Here White has the king on f6, the bishop on c5 and pawns on d6 and g5; Black has the king on c8 and the bishop on c4. Black to move, and it is a draw (per the tablebases): Black's bishop and king blockade the pawns and they cannot be advanced.
The lesson: connected passers are dangerous, but if bishop and king can stop them on squares of different colours, they do not get through. That is why working the right-coloured squares matters so much with opposite bishops.
Drag a piece onto the board, or click a piece and then click the squares. The cross beside the pieces sweeps every piece of that colour off the board, and a single piece can be dragged off the edge.
The pieces will be arranged into the chosen pattern.
It is the mating side to move. Find mate in one.
Openings, endgame positions and breakthrough studies - the set-up appears on the board.
The bishops cannot control each other's squares: a blockading piece on «its own» colour is untouchable, and the extra material cannot be converted.
With the king, the pawn standing on a square of the opponent's bishop's colour; with the bishop, the other pawn along its diagonal. Both are then stopped for a long time.
When there are passers on both wings and the enemy king cannot defend both directions in time.
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