Winning Endgames with Opposite Coloured Bishops
Opposite coloured bishop endings are known for their high drawing tendencies. In an article that I wrote several months ago entitled Opposite Coloured Bishops: Playing Against Connected Pawns, I addressed some important theoretical positions. My focus here will be on early endings where there are more pawns and pieces on the board. In order to maximise your chances of bagging the full point in such situations, I present you three principles to follow: (i) choose activity over material, (ii) go for king hunts, and (iii) prevent counterplay. While these are useful pointers to follow in almost all chess positions, these principles deserve even more attention when dealing with opposite coloured bishop endings.
1. Activity over material
The first game I will show you is quite a treat from Alexei Shirov. The star move in the game is so famous that most of you have probably seen it before. But because its ingenuity may not be fully appreciated, I have decided to highlight the subtleties surrounding the move.
White's material advantage was, on its own, insufficient for the win. He also needed a more active king (faster by just one move to be precise), his distant and passed pawns, and his opponent's pawn structure to be broken. Shirov went so far as to sacrifice a piece to check all these boxes, which really emphasises the importance of the quality over quantity of material in opposite bishop endings.
Personally, I am really glad that black chose to play 46. h4 because it made Shirov's Bh3!!, which now does not come with a capture, even more stunning 
2. Go for a king hunt
With opposite coloured bishops, the attacker is always essentially a piece up, making king hunts more deadly. This is because the defender's bishop cannot contribute to the defence of the attacked colour complex. But wait a minute, how can we even discuss king hunts and endings in the same breath? Well, that's the beauty of opposite coloured bishop positions - Attacks are much more powerful for both sides, and therefore can be done even with a few "weak" pieces in the endgame.
The next game I am going to show you has the lowest player ratings of all games I have written about on chess.com. The white player was none other than myself, back when I was ~1500 FIDE, playing against a ~1600 FIDE player. Even then, the game highlights the potency of king hunts.
With only two rooks and a bishop, white was able to create a decisive attack, thanks to his active pieces. On top of that, the black king only had one real defender, his rook. For the most part, his bishop could not help much with the defence.
3. Preventing counterplay
Generally speaking, we should place our pawns on squares of the opposite colour complex from that controlled by our bishop. However, in opposite coloured bishop endings, following this principle only works well for the attacker. The defender, on the contrary, should keep his pawns on the same colour squares as his own bishop to keep them protected.
When we have an idea of the types of pawn structures that would be ideal for ourselves and our opponent, even the deepest of prophylactic moves will present themselves. To test your understanding, I will show you a puzzle I created. If you are struggling and want a hint, I suggest taking a look at the first position shown in my earlier article mentioned at the introduction.
