What about pairing a knight and bishop? It is a versatile combination. Another is that they can BOTH reach every square on the board which means (among other things) they can create double attacks on targets. One really useful feature is that they can simultaneously defend each other. Knight pairs do have their charms though. You can checkmate a lone king by force with a bishop pair. Now you have two pieces that have long range capability, can each do pins/skewers/forks, AND working together, can reach every square on the board. Cramped position? No range in the foreseeable future? No likely pins or skewers? Stuck staring at a rock-solid pawn chain? Trade that bad boy if you can because the ability to jump usually makes knights more useful in those kinds of positions.Ĭonsider the case of having both bishops.

Start removing these capabilities though and it starts to become a pretty lame bishop. it can create pins, forks, and skewer tactics where knights can only do forks. When comparing bishops and knights, think about it this way: A bishop can only go to half the squares on the board so what on Earth makes it better than a Knight that can hit all the squares? Two reasons really. In general, if a bishop has lots of range and targets, it is better.

In this case by moving your bishop back, it gets chased down by pawns and relegated to a square where it will be weaker than the knight for most of (if not all of) the game. Please continue to give us your feedback and suggestions on how we can help make /r/chess better for everyone.īishops are usually a little better than knights but it really depends on the position.

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