The double bishop sacrifice
Give both bishops to a castled king, then bring the queen and rook to finish.
The idea
Give both bishops to a castled king, then bring the queen and rook.
- Bxh7+ gives the first bishop, and the king takes it.
- Qh5+ is check, and the king can only go back to g8.
- Bxg7 gives the second bishop and threatens Qh8 mate.
In a game: Two bishops aim at h7 and g7, no knight guards h7, and the queen can reach h5 with check.
How the lesson begins
The double bishop sacrifice gives up both bishops, one after the other, against a castled king. The first bishop takes the h-pawn and drags the king forward. The second takes the g-pawn and strips away the last cover. Emanuel Lasker played it against Johann Bauer at Amsterdam in 1889, and that game has a lesson of its own.
Look at the pattern here. One white bishop looks at h7, the other looks at g7, and the queen can reach h5 next. Black’s knight has just left f6, so the king is the only piece that guards h7.
Find the move
White to move. Start with the first bishop, and then bring the queen with check.
A hint
The bishop on c2 takes the pawn in front of the king. Then the queen goes to h5.
Show the answer
18. Bxh7+ Kxh7 19. Qh5+
Bxh7+ takes a pawn with check, and the king takes the bishop. Then Qh5+ is check along the h-file. The king has one move, back to g8: the queen covers g6, and h8 is still on the checking file.
In numbers
In the puzzle bank
3,262 puzzles in GreyChess’s bank practise it. Half of them are rated between 947 and 2,030.
The piece that makes the first move of the answer: queen 41%, rook 24%, knight 20%, bishop 12%, pawn 3%, in puzzles from the Lichess puzzle database.