From a Beginner standpoint, it is easier to see how a bishop can hurt you but you miss all the ways a knight can hurt you, so I used to immediately swap a bishop for a knight given the first opportunity.
When to trade bishop for knight
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trading a bishop for a knight can be done for immediate gains in the center.
if there is a hole on d5 as there is in many sicilian positions then bg5 followed by bxf6 can be done to install a knight on d5.
i would imagine there can be a hundred other reasons to do this.
Besides pdve's excellent reply, it was established pretty clearly in
==> another thread <==
in another forum, that the bishop should be traded immediately for a piece of delicious chocolate cake. Most of the people polled there were unequivocal about that.
The best reason to trade a bishop for a knight is that it would increase your winning or drawing chances. [depending if you are playing for a win or a draw]
Two bishops are almost always better than a bishop and a knight or 2knights, when in fairly open game. A bishop can immobilise a knight by protecting all his jumps but a knight cant do the same for a bishop. So Unless the trade is meant to weaken your opponents kingside or to further gain more material, I dont think one should waste his bishop.
Note: Am more a bishop guy. lol
I'm a knight guy.
Preserve bishops if possible in a open/semi-open game. unless a tactical combinations is available or to get rid of a strong knight.
linuxblue1 wrote:
I'm a knight guy.
Ah, but the knight is still young, and you, grasshopper are still learning...
trade whenever it looks like a good idea.
if it doesn't, then why would you do it? :<
always a good idea when opponents rated below 1700
Estragon is correct and I will add that fairly often in the opening the bishop will pin the knight and you usually do not want to trade your bishop for the pinned knight.
Kazoo_Checkmater wrote:
Trading a bishop for a knight could be considered if there is some positional or tactical opportunities showing up, or if the bishop is bad for good (has a very limited scope and a knight just shows up threatening to take say your queen, or checking your king), or the knight is too mighty (i.e. unshakable knight at e5 or d5), or the last two conditions hold simultaneously. Otherwise I think there's no point trading a bishop for a knight.
Kinghts > Bishops !!!
I've learned a long time ago, come in with a plan, then execute that plan! If u become dependent on any piece (except for the King-LOL) YOU will be your own worse enemy!
Depends on the position, activity or any advantage. In general the Knight is better in closed positions or when they have a stronghold(a point were they are supported by a pawn mostly). Knight are short range, Bishops long range.
In general Bishops are better in open positions, Bishops are really strong when they can attack and defend at the same time over long range(mostly endgame).
Example: pawn end game where the bishop is supporting the b7(about to queen) pawn from Bf3 and attacking h5. Knights are better in complicated games when your opponent has limited time!, because Knights jumps are harder to calculate. Knight and Queen in attack can be very dangerous.
There is really no direct answer, 2 centralized knights can be so strong. I think the best general answer is that Bishops are better in open games and Knights in closed games.
As I am doing here, people keep posting on any useless forum. I have started quite interesting forums but nobody posts there..:D
You should trade bishop for a knight when it leads to a winning position
trade Bishop for knight when it leads to gain in material
FanOfCarlsen a écrit :
As I am doing here, people keep posting on any useless forum. I have started quite interesting forums but nobody posts there..:D
We dont need this comment.
I think u should never trade bishop for knight as long as the bishop pair is in the board. I usually think that single knight is slightly better than a single bishop as 55% of this type endgames (knight and pawns vs bishop and pawns) have been won by the knight. Two bishops on the other hand are much better than two knights, they can mate the king in the endgames and they can create barriers for the king (two knights also can create a permenant one in the corner but cannot restrict the king permanently in the center or any edge). The weakness which makes me prefer a single knight over single bishop is that the bishop caan only travel in one colour but when u have two of them the weakness goes away, so i think when bishops are in pairs, they should be worth a whole point more than a knight. If both knight and bishop are single they both should worth roughly equal (3.25-3.5). maybe a single bishop 3.45 while a single knight 3.5
Trading a bishop for a knight could be considered if there is some positional or tactical opportunities showing up, or if the bishop is bad for good (has a very limited scope and a knight just shows up threatening to take say your queen, or checking your king), or the knight is too mighty (i.e. unshakable knight at e5 or d5), or the last two conditions hold simultaneously. Otherwise I think there's no point trading a bishop for a knight.