Wednesday, March 16, 2005
the Bishop
The Bishop can move any number of squares along its diagonals. If there is a hostile man in the way he may capture him. The Bishop moves along an oblique line, that is, he may move to any square of the diagonals on which he stands unless his way is obstructed by a man of his own color. The Bishop can't hop over other pieces. Is your opponent's bishop sitting on a square that you need in order to secure a checkmate? How about luring him away with a queen sacrifice? Of course, depending on the players' moves, captures, strategy, tactics, and positional structure of the game, a weaker Bishop may become the stronger Bishop and vice versa. The bishops may be differentiated according to which wing they begin on, i.e. the king's bishop and queen's bishop. It is possible that a Bishop may be pinned diagonally so that it is entrapped and cannot move. Each Bishop can reach only half of the squares on the chess board, but together they can move to every square on the entire board. One example of pinning Bishops is a Bishop face-off resulting in dueling Bishops where the players have placed their Queens behind the Bishops in the diagonal line creating dueling Queen-Bishop batteries. A bishop which has trouble finding a good square for development in the center may be fianchettoed. Why is one Bishop stronger and the other weaker at the start of a game? That is to say, a player's Bishop is "good" when his or her pawns in pawn chains are not blocking the Bishop's mobility through the center of the board. An endgame in which each player has only one bishop, one controlling the dark squares and the other the light, will often result in a draw even if one player has a pawn or two more than the other. As with most pieces, a bishop captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits.
The Bishop can move any number of squares along its diagonals. If there is a hostile man in the way he may capture him. The Bishop moves along an oblique line, that is, he may move to any square of the diagonals on which he stands unless his way is obstructed by a man of his own color. The Bishop can't hop over other pieces. Is your opponent's bishop sitting on a square that you need in order to secure a checkmate? How about luring him away with a queen sacrifice? Of course, depending on the players' moves, captures, strategy, tactics, and positional structure of the game, a weaker Bishop may become the stronger Bishop and vice versa. The bishops may be differentiated according to which wing they begin on, i.e. the king's bishop and queen's bishop. It is possible that a Bishop may be pinned diagonally so that it is entrapped and cannot move. Each Bishop can reach only half of the squares on the chess board, but together they can move to every square on the entire board. One example of pinning Bishops is a Bishop face-off resulting in dueling Bishops where the players have placed their Queens behind the Bishops in the diagonal line creating dueling Queen-Bishop batteries. A bishop which has trouble finding a good square for development in the center may be fianchettoed. Why is one Bishop stronger and the other weaker at the start of a game? That is to say, a player's Bishop is "good" when his or her pawns in pawn chains are not blocking the Bishop's mobility through the center of the board. An endgame in which each player has only one bishop, one controlling the dark squares and the other the light, will often result in a draw even if one player has a pawn or two more than the other. As with most pieces, a bishop captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits.
