In today's video you are going to learn everything you need to know about the 2 bishops (two bishops) or the so called bishop pair. This is one of the best strategy lessons I have learned to win more games and play comfortably. Bishops are strong in open positions and particularly powerful when you have both of them. They can control both light and dark squares and play a role in both endgames and mating attacks. If your opponent has a bishop pair, look for a way to trade off one of those bishops.

In modern chess, the bishop pair has been established as a positional advantage in the majority of cases. It’s very common nowadays to hear teachers tell their students ‘keep your bishops’ or ‘capture that bishop’. In today’s chess, the importance given to this element has increased to the point that in some of the most popular opening variations, the main goal has become gaining the bishop pair.

When fighting with the two bishops against the bishop and knight, we place the pawns on the same color as our opponent’s bishop. This way, we reduce the mobility of this piece;
In the endgame, it will always be difficult for the side playing against the bishop pair to bring his king to the center, as it will run into annoying checks or even mate threats;
We should always keep in mind that, once a bigger advantage is obtained, we can trade one of the bishops, turning the position into a simple winning endgame;
When there are rooks on the board, it is useful to trade one rook in order to reduce our opponent’s defensive resources. This combination of rook + two bishops works very efficiently together;
When playing the endgame with the bishop pair, we should try to create a passed pawn.

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