Wrong Bishop
In certain endgames, a bishop that controls the wrong color of squares to assist in promoting a rook pawn, often leading to a draw despite extra material.
The classic example is a bishop-and-rook-pawn endgame where the bishop cannot control the promotion square's color, allowing the defending king to draw a position that would otherwise be winning.
Etymology
“Wrong bishop” is a plain English descriptive coinage with no foreign root: it names a bishop that, because of the colour of squares it is restricted to, suffers a critical loss of utility in the position. Wikipedia's glossary also records the fuller variant “wrong-colored bishop.” No source consulted gives an etymology, coiner, or first attestation for the term itself; it dates only the positions, noting such endings were studied by Ercole del Rio around 1750 and by V. Platov in 1925.
First documented: 1750 — Earliest dated wrong-bishop endgame study cited: Ercole del Rio, c. 1750
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.