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In chess rules, once the pawn reaches 8th position, the player can take a Bishop even when he/she has the same square colour bishop?

I mean Can a player have same colour bishops on the chess board?

Example : Player has a single white square colour bishop. His/Her pawn reaches the 8th position where he can opt for a Queen,Rook, Knight,Bishop but where the pawn reaches the square is a white colour square, so can he take a Bishop which is occupying white square colour? If Yes, then there will be two bishops of White colour square for the player. Do Chess rules allow this?

If Yes, Why? If No, Why?

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Yes you can promote to any piece but anything other than a queen is rare. I believe promoting to a Bishop is considered the rarest move in chess. 2 bishops of the same colour is legal. There's a good RYBKA vs Hikaru Nakamura game where this happens. That said its a long game 250+ moves. so not something to put in here.

As to why its legal... FIDE rules; not exactly the easiest read though; Source : https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=171&view=article

I found some puzzle examples

Example 1: Queen Promotion - Result Stalemate

[FEN "8/8/5b2/8/K7/4N3/kp6/8 w - - 0 1"]

1. Nd1 b1=Q 2. Nc3+ Bxc3 *

Example 2: Bishop Promotion - Black Wins (after about 50 moves of end game pain)

[FEN "8/8/5b2/8/K7/4N3/kp6/8 w - - 0 1"]

1. Nd1 b1=B 2. Nc3+ Bxc3
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  • Thanks. Why it is considered legal to have same colour bishops according to chess rules for the player? The game starts with two bishops for every player which is a white and black square color bishop.
    – Prashant Akerkar
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 11:51
  • Thank you. Is it possible to checkmate the King with same colour bishops in the end game? i.e. Two bishops of same colour and King v/s King?
    – Prashant Akerkar
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 11:55
  • Nope. Nine bishops on the same-color square plus king can't checkmate, because there's always a flight square on the other color square.
    – friscodelrosario
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 11:56
  • Thank you. Thats quite interesting. So this is a draw?
    – Prashant Akerkar
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 11:59
  • The Check mate of two bishops same colour, i don;t believe so. In this instance Stalemate by Insufficient material.
    – Dheebs
    Commented Aug 29, 2020 at 12:17
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NINE! NINE bishops is within the rules.

::cough:: Sorry about this. "Ten bishops of the same color is within the rules. "

If eight pawns promote on the same color square, that makes eight bishops of that color, plus the one that starts the game on that color.

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