Anyone seen underpromotion to B for legit reason?

Okay, 99.5% of pawn promotions are to Q; most of the rest are to N, and a few are to R to avoid stalemates. Has anyone ever seen a game with an underpromotion to a B for legitimate chess reasons (and not just for the fun of it)?

Thanks, C.I.

Check out a google search for
underpromotion to a bishop chess

several examples, one of them requiring 4 consecutive underpromotions as each Bishop promotion threatened mate.

post any good ones you find.

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http://home.comcast.net/~joyner.david/wdj/chess/Elkies07.html

I promoted a pawn to a Bishop one time. I clicked the wrong button.

There are chess problems which involve underpromotion to a bishop in order to solve. I doubt there are many actual real games where it is a necessity, but some people underpromote in a winning position just to show off

Originally posted by Siskin
There are chess problems which involve underpromotion to a bishop in order to solve. I doubt there are many actual real games where it is a necessity, but some people underpromote in a winning position just to show off

I know someone who has promoted to a bishop to give him two bishops and was going to mate with those. Just to show off. Then he realised he had two lightsquared bishops and it was drawn. Serves him right.

Whenever underpromotion comes up I give the Babson Task as an example:


White to move and Mate in 4.

The main solution lines are as follows:

1.a7!
1...axb1=Q 2.axb8=Q Qxb2(!) 3.Qxb3 Qc3 4.Qxc3#
Qe4(!) 3.Qxf4 Qxf4 4.Rxf4#
1...axb1=R(!) 2.axb8=R! Rxb2(!)3.Rxb3 Kxc4 4.Qa4#
2.axb8=Q? Rxb2! 3.Qxb3 1/2-1/2
1...axb1=B(!) 2.axb8=B! Be4(!) 3.Bxf4 B- 4.Be3(5)#
2.axb8=Q? Be4! 3.Qxf4 1/2-1/2
1...axb1=N(!) 2.axb8=N! Nxd2(!) 3.Qc1! Ne4 4.Nc6#
2.axb8=Q? Nxd2! 3.Qxf4+ Kc3
3.Rxf4+ Ne4
3.Qc1 Ne4

As you can see white must promote to the same piece that black does if he wants to mate in 4.
For more information and analysis http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/babs.html

Generally underpromotion is used to prevent stalemate, sometimes to mate (with N), sometimes to confuse, and sometimes to remind the other bugger it's about time he resigned.

There's a nice article at http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/minor.htm where there's at least one underpromotion to B used in actual play.

Originally posted by CrawlIce
Okay, 99.5% of pawn promotions are to Q; most of the rest are to N, and a few are to R to avoid stalemates. Has anyone ever seen a game with an underpromotion to a B for legitimate chess reasons (and not just for the fun of it)?

Thanks, C.I.

As in all underpromotions the only sensible reasons are:
1)To avoid stalemate (the most common)
2) To win a piece (Knight falls neatly here)
An example:


White cannot play:
1.cxbQ(R) due to stalemate; 1.cxbN leads to draw, so the only option is 1.cxbB and White wins.

Originally posted by ilywrin
As in all underpromotions the only sensible reasons are:
1)To avoid stalemate (the most common)
2) To win a piece (Knight falls neatly here)
An example:

[fen]1r6/2P5/8/8/8/2N5/8/k6K [/fen]
White cannot play:
1.cxbQ(R) due to stalemate; 1.cxbN leads to draw, so the only option is 1.cxbB and White wins.

Isn't this an amazing study (the full one) where two different variants require two different underpromotions?

Originally posted by XanthosNZ


Whenever underpromotion comes up I give the Babson Task as an example:

[fen]Bq1B1K2/3Pp3/P3Pp2/P1p2P2/2Pk1b1R/1p6/pN1P1P2/QR6 w - - 0 1[/fen]
White to move and Mate in 4.

The main solution lines are as follows:

[b]1.a7!
1...axb1=Q 2.axb8=Q Qxb2(!) 3.Qxb3 Qc3 4.Qxc3#
Qe4(!) 3.Qxf4 Qxf4 4.Rxf4#
1.. ...[text shortened]... nts to mate in 4.
For more information and analysis http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/babs.html

This is pure beauty.

Originally posted by gumbie
This is pure beauty.

I completely agree. It stunned me for a week when I first saw it.

Here is a pice of teory : 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 (Albin counter gambit) 3.dxe d4 And now 4.e3? Bb4+ 5.Bd2 dxe 6.Bxb4 exf2+ 7.Ke2 fxg1 (N)+

And it's accualy been played a couple of times. Look it up on the online database at chessbase.com