Foreword:
Dear reader, you are holding the first part of a two-volume work in your hands. I'd like to lead you to a world mysterious and unknown even to trained chess players, in fact, more or less to grandmasters.

I trust that reading this book will give you not only joy and entertainment but it will also help you to understand these extremely interesting and exiting endgames. Furthermore, I hope that as as result, later on you will be able to successfully adopt in practice all that you learn from this book.

The topics are the following: The three positions of the introductory part shed light on what urged me to deal in such minuteness of detail with opposite-coloured bishop endings.

In the basic positions I arranged in a row the most important types of positions of connected and split pawns, the self-confident knowledge of which is essential to be able to solve the more complicated, multi pawn positions.

In the examples of practical endings you can see all the virtues and errors which spring from the knowledge, or the lack of it, of the rules of opposite-coloured bishop endings. The epilogue supports all that was written , and briefly summarizes the rules.

I should like to express my special thanks to my ex-pupil GM Ferenc Berkes for his many and profound analysing work, and for always finding time to discuss any newly arisen, interesting-looking positions with me.

IM Gyula Mészáros

Gyula Mészáros is an International Master and chess trainer. He obtained his diploma of expert coaching in the Universaty of Physical Education in Budapest.

Two of his pupils - IM Tamás Fodor and GM Ferenc Berkes - gained World Champion title in their age group. Now he is the leader of the Lékó Péter Chess School in Miskolc.