Both players have a single bishop operating on identical squares.
Why it matters
With bishops on the same colour, whoever puts their pawns on the wrong colour loses the argument. Pawns on the bishop's colour are permanently in the way and permanently attackable by the opposing bishop.
These endgames are also full of zugzwang, because a bishop can pass a move and a pawn cannot. Often the extra pawn is irrelevant and the whole game is about who runs out of safe moves first.
See it on a board
Both bishops are light-squared and both black pawns sit on light squares, where the white bishop can attack them and the black bishop cannot escape defending them.
Checked: the position really has the feature described.
How to play it
- Put your own pawns on the opposite colour to the bishops, so your bishop stays free and the pawns cannot be attacked.
- Fix the opponent's pawns on the bishops' colour, where your bishop can hit them and theirs cannot defend them.
- Look for zugzwang: with pawns fixed, the side that runs out of bishop moves has to give something up.
At each level
The same idea, said the way it is taught at each age.
Knight · ages 4–6
Your bishop only uses one colour of square. Put your pawns on the other colour so it can move and they cannot be attacked.
Rook · ages 6–9
Fixing the opponent's pawns on the bishops' colour is worth more than winning one. A pawn that has to be defended forever costs the defender the whole endgame.
What goes wrong
- Putting pawns on the bishop's colour because they feel defended there.
- Playing for material when the position is really about zugzwang and safe moves.
Questions people ask
- Are same-coloured bishop endgames drawish?
- Much less so than opposite-coloured ones. An extra pawn usually wins if the pawns are not all on the bishop's colour, and zugzwang gives the stronger side extra chances.