Opposite-coloured bishops = draw?

This position is from the Game 4983628 with draw agreement.


The black king is far away and therefore I think white can win:

1.Ke7 Bd5 2.f5! gxf5 3.e6! fxe6 4.Be5 f4 5.Bxf4 Be4 6.Kxe6 Kc8 7.Kf7
Bd5+ 8.Kg6 Bf3 9.Kh6 Kd7 10.g6 Ke7 11.g7 Bd5 12.Bg5+ Kd6 13.Kh7+-

The only way white wins is by creating more than one passed pawn. No way white wins. Opposite colored bishops almost invariably are drawish in the endgame. Even in the posted game with no passed pawn a breakthrough would require black to just lie down and die, which black will not. black king not so far away it cannot get in the thick of it.

Originally posted by scacchipazzo
The only way white wins is by creating more than one passed pawn. No way white wins. Opposite colored bishops almost invariably are drawish in the endgame. Even in the posted game with no passed pawn a breakthrough would require black to just lie down and die, which black will not. black king not so far away it cannot get in the thick of it.

I tried 6.Kf6, and that too wins. Although I brought some difficulties upon myself with that move against Hiarcs 12 (which never lays down to die).

Wulebgr - Hiarcs 12
Blitz:10' River City, 07.03.2009
1.Ke7 Bd5 2.f5 gxf5 3.e6 fxe6 4.Be5 f4 5.Bxf4 Be4 6.Kf6



6...Kc6 7.g6 Kd5 8.g7 Bh7 9.Kf7 Kd4 10.g8Q Bxg8+ 11.Kxg8 Ke4 12.Bg5 Ke5 13.Kg7 Kf5 14.Kf7 e5 15.Be3 Kg4 16.Bf2 Kf5 17.Kg7 Kg4 18.Kh6 Kf3 19.Be1 Kg4 20.Kg6 e4 21.Kf6 Kf4 22.Kg6 Kg4 23.Kh6 e3 24.Kg6 e2 25.Kh6 Kf4 26.Kxh5 Kf3 27.Kg6 Kg2 28.h5 Kf1 29.Bb4 e1Q 30.Bxe1 Kxe1 31.h6 Ke2 32.h7 Kd3 33.h8Q Kc4 34.Kf5 Kd3 35.Qh2 Kc4 36.Ke5 Kd3 37.Qf2 Kc3 38.Kd5 Kd3 39.Qe1 Kc2 40.Qe3 Kb2 41.Kc4 Ka2 42.Kc3 Ka1 43.Qd2 Kb1 44.Qb2# 1–0

As always I try to look up end games in my chess library. From reading my books I get the notion that it is a draw because in order to win with opposite Bishops you need pawns on both sides. Nevertheless, from the variation posted I have a strong feeling that this is indeed winning.
I have tried to refute the lines that were posted, but I simply cannot. Off course this doesn't mean anything. I am certainly no grand master or even close to international master. So, for whatever it is worth. I believe that this is a clear win.

This game is a win for white as follows,--Ke7-Bd5/f5-gxf5/e6-fxe6/Be5-f4/Bxf4-Be4/Kxe6-kc6/Kf7-Bd5+/Kg6-Bf3/Kh7-Be4+/Kh6-Kd7/Kxh5-Ke8/Be5-Kf7/Kh6 as the black King cannot enter g7 or h8 the white King and g and h pawns can force the surrender of the black Bishop in exchange for one of whites two remaining pawns,and force the promotion of the remaining pawn----😉

sorry looking at the wrong postion.

I decided not to even try to analyze the position, since I'd probably mess it up big time, anyway. But I did plug it into Fruit 2.3.1 with 5-piece tablebases. After 39 minutes at 34 ply, the eval went from over +3 to over +10. The PV starts deviating from the OPs line with 6.Kf6 Kc6 7.g6 Kd5 8.Bg3 e5 9.g7 Bh7 10.Bxe5 Bg8 11.Bg3 Ke4 etc.

So we can argue the variations, but I suspect there's a win there for White.

Edit - I also went to the beginning of move 6 and looked at the first 3 variations of the engine. Very quickly, at ply 24, Fruit indicated that either 6.Kf6 Kc6 or 6.Kf7 Kc6 had an eval of over +10, but 6.Kxe6 Kc6 only had an eval of +2. (However, on ply 26, the eval of 6.Kxe6 Kc6 also jumped to over +10.)

There are in fact several winning lines of course,but even with best black move selection,white still has a forced win regardless of blacks choices of moves here--------------😉

This is why it's important to look at every position individually. Maybe 90% of opposite-colored bishop endgames with one side having an extra pawn are drawn, but there are plenty of examples where the side with more material can win.

Mechanical play by both sides

Interesting position. In general opposite coloured bishop endings are drawish as each side controls the squares the other side needs to advance pawns through. In this it´s important that white has the dark squared bishop, after black´s been forced to give up the bishop for the g-pawn the eventual promotion square will be h8 and you need the dark squared bishop to keep black´s king out of the corner and promote there. If you move everything back a square then black can defend as white can´t keep black´s king out of h8.

Obviously, this also gives black some more space to work with but it´s the only way I could think of to swap round the bishop colours without making the position a trivial win for white.

I humbly accept the soft gloved slap. I wrongly assumed black was next to move in which case i believe dislodging the black king would prove difficult. white to move probably wins along the lines you suggest.

Thanks woodworm for the instructive position and game. It represents a dual tragicomedy in the spirit of Mark Dvoretsky's compilation of fundamental errors by players who should know better. First, Black gives up the draw with a critical error, then White accepts a draw in a won position.