Diagonals and the powerful "Battery"

The bishops and queens can work together on the diagonals, especially when no enemy pawns are in the way. Two bishops can work together to control diagonals of both color squares and sometimes wreak havoc on the enemy kings or pieces this way. Lets look at a couple of examples of checkmates on the diagonals.

In the first diagram white is threatening mate on the

g7 or h8 squares. Black has no way to prevent this but tries moving the bishop back to e8 which gives the king an escape square (f7) if white does not deliver mate next move. Now white can mate on g7 or h8 since the white bishop defends the queen. This setup is called a "Battery".

Two bishops or a queen and a bishop can work together to control the diagonals of both colors.

In this diagram checkmate has been delivered by the two bishops. In this case either bishop could be a queen and it would still be mate.