It really does depend on board position

THEY ARE THE EXACT SAME VALUE!

I think it depends.

it definitely depends on the  board position and where you want to get

It does indeed depends on the position (See Jeremy Silman stuff on this site). it also depends on whom is playing them! don't forget : there are players behind these pieces of wood. Some players like Karpov are great using Knights while Tal for ex. was very good with bishops....

depends

Like rock, paper, and scissors, they are "equal but not equal".

knights are better for defending pieces that are attacking

I think it depends of the board position.Or I think Bishop are a little bit better than a knight.

Oh i though it was about KCBs and Archbishops :(

That's like asking "Which is more useful, my feet or my hands ?"

well i think that it depends on the board position. :-)

Well. a Bishop pair is meant to be better than a knight pair, but 2 Bishops can't  cover each other unless in the end game you get a pawn promotion and get two Bishops the same color. But 2 knight's can cover each other but Bishops have a slight advantage.

I voted B slightly better than N, but only overall. Of course the position is the important thing. They don't begin the game equal, BTW, the knights are stronger in the opening, as they are able to reach more key squares within 2 moves. Usually, especially in open positions bishops are better later, but endgame bishops can be very useless things indeed - a useless endgame knight is so because it might take 5-10 moves to get it to the correct square; a wrong-colour bishop can never reach the correct square!

Also, against humans only, bishops are more powerful than they really should be simply because of the percentage of times people fail to see them covering a piece on a long diagonal etc. I'm sure most of us have lost more key pieces at critical moments to bishops than any other piece.

 And of course, there can be little argument that a pair of bishops beats a pair of knights hands down in almost any position...

I don't think you guys realize how dangerous a bishop can be compared to old pradictable knight.

I love playing Knight v Bishop with other pieces on the board, you can put all your pieces on the opposite color as their bishop and not worry about hanging anything at all.

often in endgames bishops can be useless, especially when there are past pawns to stop

also knights have a distinct advantage in cramped positions 

they took my topic

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/knight-or-bishop---which-is-the-best  

i think that the bishop is better in some ocations.. but if you have a white bishop, and all your pieces are in white squares, that bishop is a bit useless.. the same happens with the knight

I don't consider the last option trival, of course board positions always determine the strength of every piece but the question was in relation to a knight and a bishop. I find my bishops a little more better when it comes to end games because of their long range value, whereas on the other hand I find knights most useful and of the greatest value to me mid-game and for close combat because of their ability to jump over pieces. Put another way, they're most valuable to me on a clustered or pieces-littered board.

I agree withsauron0512 why wrote:  "The last option is trivial. It should not have been there. The voting woud have been more interesting then... "

 The value of any piece ultimately depends on the board position. There are situations in which it is better to promote a pawn to a knight, rather than to a queen, which is an example of a knight being worth more than a queen because of board position.

When I responded to the question I ignored that option because it did not make sense. Instead I responded as thought the question was about the overall, general comparison.

It would be interesting to see this survey run again with only clear choices.

The last option is trivial. It should not have been there. The voting would have been more interesting then...  

 It ALWAYS depends on the board position.

Well, I read that two Bishops are stronger than two knights. But one knight is the same as one Bishop. So that means Bishops are the better piece.

Even two Bishops may not be the same in value based on the board position! One obvious example of this is the "good" and "bad" bishop, but a far more frustrating (or useful, depending on whether you're attacking or defending) is the move g3 (or g6 as Black)in front of a kingside castled King. This move is very useful as a defense against certain Queen mates (e.g. Queen backed up by a rook, or Queen defended by a Knight), but it creates a weakness in the light squares around your King (or dark squares if you're playing as Black)which can be exploited by an attacker who has a Bishop on that color. However, this position can be VERY frustrating for an opponent whose Bishop is not on that color. I am using this to my advantage in a game I'm currently playing. In this case, the worth of a Bishop is determined by the color on which it rests.

Ha.  Should be pretty obvious what the most popular answer will be.  They should rerun this survey without the last option.

there is no point that which one is powe than other piece., its all depend on board position, but normally this two pieces are equal when we start the game,

Closed position, Knight. Open, Bishop (unless it's bad). Seems like it's that simple to me.

 

Nice Father Ted reference sstteevveenn. :)

they are even but sometimes they can be diferent.

Any value depends on the position. A knight is much better than a rook in a hopelessly closed game. A pawn about to be promoted is more valuable than a rook, if the rook cannot stop it. In general, the bishop is slightly better. It does not ULTIMATELY depend on the position. There are exceptions than lead people to the conclusion that they are equal in value.

I like bishops because of their long range ability.

Exactly, which is why i made a point of not voting for that answer.  A pawn can be better than a queen in some board positions.  There should be an option "That would be an ecuminical matter." 

It ALWAYS depends on the board position.