Basic Checkmates: Two Bishops and a King

Checkmate with Two Bishops, by Ms Jessica Martin (aka BoundingOwl)

Hi kids!  It's Ms Jessica again.  Ready for another mate?  Checkmate is super great!  You can now checkmate with a king and a queen, a king and a rook, and I'm pretty sure you can do two rooks alone by yourself. (Just pretend they are feet walking downstairs to let the bug--king--outside.)

So now we are going to learn how to make a checkmate using only two bishops!  By the way, you cannot make checkmate with only one bishop.  Ever!  See if you could figure out why!  It will be an automatic draw.

draw.JPG

In fact, you cannot force a checkmate with only one Bishop, only one knight, two knights, a pawn that's on the rook's file, and if you make a draw with a knight and a bishop, well that's totally passable since only masters know how to mate with a knight and bishop!  Maybe someday you will learn it too!

But with two bishops, don't call it a draw.  Just think of them as your family, and you will win!  The king can be mom or dad, and, do you have a sibling?  You and your siblings are the bishops.

siblingsHere we go!

Here's the big idea:
 Big Brother (that's you) wants to go outside and play, and of course your younger brother (little B) wants to play, too, and so your dad says, "sure you can play, as long as he can play also".
Keep everyone together!
 
Next, we fold up the family, you are not old enough to leave and go away to college yet, so you have to stay close to home. 
Remember to huddle up in the rain, and then boldly go forward.  But don't leave anyone behind, and don't go off by yourself! Notice how we are secretly creating a box around the white king?  It may look more like a triangle, but these bishops work very well together. 
                                              What do you play here?
                                                          Nice work!
 
Now that we have trapped the king on the edge of the board, the bishops are grown up and ready to go off to college.  Your job now is to try to get the king to go closest to YOUR OWN KING'S corner.  Watch!
Your turn!  It's mate in two...
Well done!
 
Remember:  1.  Keep your family together:  huddle up, then spread out on the same line.  2. Trap the king on the edge of the board. 3.  Find the corner closest to your king, and FORCE the opponent's king to that corner!  Now you are ready for college!  I just need you to write one, superlong essay on the socio-impacts of the benefits of chess in academia and the pursuit of checkmate in the scholar's waking life. 
 
Just kidding!  Just play chess for now, and college will come later.