How to use the bishops to attack
“Most chess players know, thanks to the study of master games, that two bishops are stronger than two knights”
Richard Reti
Everybody who has seen chess games analysis from masters has heard phrases like “and in this position white is clearly better thanks to the pair of bishops” or “and white is better because he has a bishop against a knight”, the idea that bishops are stronger than knights looks natural for them, but why? If we've been taught that both pieces have the same value when we were beginners, why chess masters claim that bishops are stronger? Moreover, why we struggled to win when we have a bishop vs a knight? I expect to answer these questions in the present post.
Hi, I am Gabriel Salazar, a fide chess master, and coach. I tend to publish posts every Monday and Thursday about chess training and tips that you can apply in your own games, for more information you can also check https://tres-reyes.com/en/coaches/fm-gabriel-salazar
Bishops, when are well used, become a powerful piece in chess. They can attack from distance, threatening two far points at the same time on the board, control all the squares of one color, and more. These considerations have made that people eventually change the value that they have to bishops and knights, when somebody realizes the full power of the first ones, he tends to prefer it more, but regardless of the functionality of this piece, not many people know how to win a game with that. In fact, this creates a clear difference between the masters and beginners.
In this case, knowledge is not power. It’s not enough to know the advantages of the bishops, you also need to learn how to use these advantages in your games, do you know that the power of bishops increase in the endgame? Then, learn to use them in that stage of the game, what do you have to do? Where should you place your bishop to emphasizes its power? After you get the answers and know correctly what to do in that kind of endgame is that you will start to feel the difference.
Before move on, let’s see probably the most famous chess game where the power of bishops is exploited.
Cover all the possible benefits that bishops can have in a single post would be an infinite task, at least if I want to cover them the best possible. That’s why today I just want to focus on bishops when they are attacking, I will give you some tips that you can apply in your games and also show you how they can work.
1- Bishops can attack from far away
I already said it at the beginning of this post, one of the advantages of the bishops is that they are capable of pinpointing a sector of the board from the opposite side. This idea has created some beautiful games like the next one:
So next time you want to create an attack on the opponent king, remind that you can place the bishop on another side of the board and still put pressure.
2- You can not only maneuver with your knights, try with the bishop too
If we mention the word “maneuver” we tend to have an image of a knight on our brains, but have you ever maneuvered with the bishop too? In the end, the goal of maneuvering a piece is to improve the place of it. You can do the same with the bishop, improving it to get a stronger diagonal.
Bishops are as stronger as the importance you give them. Next, and final very important point
3- Open diagonals for your bishops
Bishops work by moving through diagonals, therefore, if you want to exploit their power you need to give them as many open diagonals as possible. Sometimes no matter how much material you give to the opponent, if you are opening diagonals for your bishops and make them strong, it is probably that the idea is good.
I hope this last example clears your mind as much as it did with me, bishops will be as strong as you decide it in your games. These are a couple of ideas that you can use from now to give them more importance but the knowledge does not end here, there are tons of information about bishops that is useful to know and apply (which is the important word here) it does not matter if you know that bishops are strong pieces if you do not know how to use them in your games and the best way to learn this is practicing.
I am Gabriel Salazar, a chess Fide Master, and coach. You can contact me if you want chess private lessons. For more chess content check https://tres-reyes.com/en/
