In the game of chess, one of the two minor pieces is the Bishop, the other being the Knight. Two bishops for each player, one each flanking the queen and the king respectively are unique in their own. As you may be aware, the bishops move only in diagonals, either forward or backward in any direction.
Effective utilization of the bishops should be a part of any successful chess strategy. In order that you should learn and appreciate the importance of the bishop in your game plan, i would like to place before you some simple tips.
The bishop pair is very powerful, it wins against two knights in most positions that one of the knights cannot be exchanged for one of the bishops. A drawback to the bishop is it is always on the same color. Games with bishops of opposite color are drawish.
A bishop can only stop a pawn that is on the seventh rank and about to queen if it controls the same color as the queening square. This is important to keep in mind when we are exchanging bishops or a knight for a bishop. Although the knight is slightly less powerful than the bishop, if we are sure not to trade both knights for our opponent's bishops, then we can arrive at a knight versus bishop ending.
One important aspect of the bishop is that it is powerful against connected pawns. The knight is also powerful against connected pawns. In some endings the bishop will be a better piece than the rook. Steinitz won many games using this principle. But if the pawns are far apart, then the rook is much more powerful. Especially the knight cannot handle pawns that are
far apart because it can only move about two squares each time it moves. For this reason the bishop will be better than the knight in positions where we have to cover two parts of the board.
On the defensive side, the bishops can only guard pawns that are on its color. We need to take this into account when we exchange pawns. Also when we exchange bishops or knight for bishop, we must look at our pawn structure. Be sure not to trap your bishops behind pawns.
The fianchetto is a popular way to move the bishop on its first move. Openings with fianchettoed bishops include the King's Indian, Queen's Indian, and Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence. You can control the same squares as the fianchetto by moving the bishop to the bishop 3 square of either the king or the queen. You can do this by moving the bishop first to the king 2 square or queen 2 square, then the king bishop 3 or queen bishop 3 square. This will not be quite as defensive, however.
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