White to Play and Win – By Mate!

Author: Problemist

A horrible bad bishop for black, to be sure! In a game, the easy route would be of course to capture pawns and promote – but what if, horrors of horrors, Black finds some way to sacrifice the bishop for the promoted pawn and come to a 2N vs. K position? Not likely, but again, such things happen to us all, especially in quick time controls.

Instead, white can use the impotence of the bishop and use his knights to force mate – in one line, by sacrificing it.



Continuation:

1.Ng3! threatening Ne2(#3) 1...Bg7 2.Ne2 threatening Ngf4(#2) 2...Bh6 3.Kxc6 Bg7 4.Ngf4 Bf8 [if 4...gxf4 5.exf4#] 5.Ng6#

Interestingly, removing pawns b3/b4, and white knight on g2, leads to an even quicker mate – in 4! Can you find it?

1.Nd2! threatening Nb3(#3) 1...Bg7 2.Nb3 threatening Na5(#2) 2...Bh6 3.Na5 and 4. Nxc6#. Mate on the white square again, this time from the Q-side.

This line certainly shows that in blocked positions, the N, or in this case, a set of Ns, can severely overpower a bad bishop!