Well, I find this very helpful since my knight skills are lacking. Very nice post thanks.
Knight VS Bishop
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I'm just skimming (at present) this latest post CHESS Star and have come across your diagram to calculate how many moves it takes the knight to reach each square on the board based on its central location. That's BRILLIANT! I really like that.
thanks you so much my friend! ;)
Good presentation. I use the "anti-knight" technique all of the time.
Hi every body! This article will talk about the very important notion of the minor pieces (Knight and Bishop). ITS TAKEN FROM J. WAITZKIN AND also J. SILMAN. This concept are very useful because it can allow you to win many games!! Ok, i feel free to start this post with my favorite piece of the chess game. I'm talking about the Knight.
Knight
key 1: The knight, contrarily at the bishop, prefer to work in a close position.
1.1- another important thing to know about the close position is that the play can be played more slowly because the tempo are not as important like in a wild open position by example.
Key 2: Knight need some support point in the ennemy territory to be more effective.
2.1- a support point is simply a square in the ennemy zone who's cannot be protect by any ennemy pawn (or if the opponen protecter pawn advance to work, it will hardly weaken the ennemy position).
2.2- another really important point to know about this support point is that this support point must be in an area of the board where some actions is taking place to be effective to your position!
Ok...ok.. Now i think is great time for a little diagram to illustrate this concept of the support point (in the action) for the knight!
2.3
Key 3: In general, and of course it depend of the caracteristics of the position, (and don't forget that any rule have exception!!!), the rank number where the knight is sitting will really affect the strength of this piece. I explain ...
3.1- if the knight is on the first or second rank he is often purely defensive.
3.2- if the knight sit in the 3rd rank, than this piece can be useful for your defense and also ready to jump in the 5 rank to became a more offensive piece.
3.3- if the knight goes on the 4th rank he can be use both for the defense and the attack
3.4- A knight on the 5th rank are often considerate more powerfull that a bishop
and also considerate to have a good attack potential.
3.5- A well positionned knight in the 6th rank give you often a winning advantage face at your opponen (here again it's only a general rule and it depend of the caracteristics of the position...but it's true the most of the time).
Key 4: The knight are often the best blocker for a ennemy passed pawn.
4.1- One reason of this is that the knight can stop the passed pawn by sitting in the square right in front of the ennemy passed pawn, independently of the colour of this same square .... contrarily at the bishop.
4.2- Another reason for this is that the knight can still relatively active when he stop a passed pawn.
Key 5: In a EndGame with pawns sitting on only one side of the board (queenside or kingside), the knight became more powerful that a bishop.
5.1- The biggest reason for this is that the knight can step in every colour of the board, contrarily of the bishop.
Let's show this principle with another diagram!
5.2
Key 6: Ok! i think you will really anjoy this little trick!!! (just like a candy) I have found a very usefull trcik for calculate very fast how moves your knight will need to reach any square of the board... and very quicly :) look that!
6.1- Now i will try to explain the last diagram...
Firstly, the number represent the minimal number of moves that the knight need to reach each of these square.
As you can see, the blue line represent the horizontal and vertical continuation of the knight home square and the red one are just the diagonal continuation of the same knight home square.
Also, as you can see, it are some pattern in both continuation line. The blue line show a 3-2-3-2 pattern in any horizontal and vertical direction. And the red one show a 2-4-2-4 pattern in any diagonal direction from the square of the knight. I remember you that this number just represent the minimal number of moves that the knight need to reach this respective square. But you must know that this pattern only work in 4 squares ahead in any direction (horizontal, vertical and diagonal), and over 4 squares ahead the principle cannot be apply.
After that if you eliminate the square who can be reach by the knight in 1 move, you can see then all the other squares with the same colour of your knight square can be reach in 2, and finally all the squares on the opposite colour of the knight square can be reach in 3 moves. But you must remember again that this pattern only work in 4 squares ahead in any direction (horizontal, vertical and diagonal), and over 4 squares ahead the principle cannot be apply!!!
Now it's time to talk about the bishop
Bishop
Before i start to give you some keys to use with the bishop and want to be sure that every body well understand the principle of Good bishop/Bad bishop
By definition, a good bishop is when its central pawns are NOT on it's colour and thus are NOT obstructing its activity. On the the other hand, again by definition, a bad bishop is when its central pawns ARE on its colour and also thus block his activity.
Let's see it for a better understanding...
Key 1: If you got a really bad bishop during a game you must try to correct the situation
1.1- A way to do it it's to trade it for an stronger ennemy piece of same value (or better). ( just like a strong ennemy knight by example ).
1.2- You can also try to make it became good by getting your central pawns off its color.
1.3- You can also make it more active by putting him outside your pawns chain.
Key 2: Bishop like the open position!
2.1- the major reason for this is that the bishop are a long-range weapon, and by the way, bishop are more effective in open play.
Key 3: When you reach an endgame with passed pawns (one for white and the other one for black) on both side of the board, bishop often beat knight on this situation.
3.1- The major reason for this is, again, the long-range caracteristic of bishop.
and i hope that this diagram will help you to understand what i mean...
Key 4: If you're trying to win the game ( not try just to optain a draw ) in an endgame of opposite colors bishop you should try to avoid the queen exchange.
Key 5: If you're opponen got a bad bishop during a game, you often must play to make it consistently worse and also try to get you're own minor piece better.
The Anti-bishop technique
Key 1: One effective way to play against the bishop in an endgame is to place is own pawns on the opposite colors of the ennemy bishop.
the anti-knight technique
Key 1: One effective way to play against the knight is to place a bishop 3 squares right in front of it.
Let's see a diagram to illustrate this concept...
1.1
Key 2: The second technique for play against a knight is to take away all advanced support points for the ennemy knight (really effective way to play against knight!).
2.1- Before doing this you must ask at yourself these 2 questions
- Can his knight get the advanced point in my territory?
- If his knight can reach these squares, does it matter? ( or if you prefer does this advanced point are in the action of the game, if the answer is NO then it maybe doesn't matter anymore! ).
rules with 2 bishops
Key 1: two bishops working together are so strong.
1.1- In an endgame, two bishop placed side by side control a huge territory.
1.2- If you got 1 bishop and 1 knight (or 2 knights) against 2 bishops you should try to trade one bishop or one knight against one ennemy BISHOP! Try to avoid endgame against 2 bishops (really strong) when you don't have 2 bishops you to.
1.3- if you play against 2 ennemy bishops and you're really NOT ABLE TO TRADE AGAINST ONE OF HIS BISHOP, you can also:
-create more blocked position
-try create advanced support for your knight
rules with 2 knights
Key 1: 2 knight well placed in advanced support points (deep in ennemy territory) are very powerful!
That's all! :D