The Hou-Koneru Bishop Endgame

In the ongoing Women's World Chess Championship, a key encounter came in the semifinal, as the two highest-rated players, Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan, met.  In the first game of the two-game match, Hou had white, and Koneru played the Berlin Defense to the Ruy Lopez, clearly aiming to achieve a draw so that she could play for a win of the game, and the match, with white in the second game.

At move 28, they reached the following position:

Hou Yifan - Humpy Koneru,

Women's World Chess Championship, Round 5.1 (2010)

Position after 28.Kxd3

Hou has a large advantage here.  The pawn formation is the classic one from the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation (although, as mentioned above, this game actually started as a Ruy Lopez Berlin Defense), where White has a mobile pawn majority on the kingside while Black's queenside pawn majority is useless because of the doubled c-pawns.  Here Black might appear to have some compensation because White's kingside pawns are on the same color as her bishop, but White can (and, indeed must) advance those pawns so her bishop is by no means "bad."

More important is the difference in king activity: White's king can take up a powerful position in the middle of the board, while Black's is stuck on the 7th and 8th ranks, in part because of her earlier mistake 25...g6?, blocking the king's path from f7-g6-f5.  Black may already be lost but at the very least she is in for a long and painful defense.