Is a bishop worth more than a knight?

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Avatar of Thordelvalle

Knight 2.5 Bishop 3.5.

Avatar of lfPatriotGames

It depends on what they are made of, but usually they are the same. For a typical Staunton wood piece they are usually about 3.00 each

But wholesale chess has the knight valued more at .79 versus .49 for the bishop.

Avatar of TheCobraisaready

Knights for sure the trickiest to work out, if I'm winning il keep the bishop if losing keep the knights especially in bullet

Avatar of maxnyc7
Bishop
Avatar of thedelcai

If I were better, my best guess is that I'd much prefer a Bishop... and I just read that Fischer thought a Bishop was worth more like 3.5 to a Knight's 3.0 (because it can control more squares). In my own games, I slightly prefer a Bishop just because it's easier to see what squares it contols. But I prefer that my opponent lose a Knight... for exactly the same reason: it's easier to see what squares their Bishops control.

Avatar of TheCatLoversWillRise

depends

Avatar of BethHarmonsGrandDad

All depends on the position knights' like closed and bishops like open

Avatar of Maria

it depends on the position. if it's an open position, bishops. if closed, then knights. also the part of the game (middlegame, opening, endgame) plays a part in determining the value of a bishop versus a knight.

Avatar of lfPatriotGames
thedelcai wrote:

If I were better, my best guess is that I'd much prefer a Bishop... and I just read that Fischer thought a Bishop was worth more like 3.5 to a Knight's 3.0 (because it can control more squares). In my own games, I slightly prefer a Bishop just because it's easier to see what squares it contols. But I prefer that my opponent lose a Knight... for exactly the same reason: it's easier to see what squares their Bishops control.

The knight can control exactly twice as many squares as a bishop. But the bishop can potentially control more squares at once.

Avatar of darkunorthodox88
BandNerd6000 wrote:
darkunorthodox88 wrote:

saying bishops are better than knights is useless advice

for people rated 0-1000 its completely worthless since this rating group is so bad at seeing knight forks, you can make the argument the knight is superior to the bishop at that rating range

for people rated 1000-2000 you are beginning to learn when positions favor one over the other so to teach a person bishops are better than knight only retards this learning process. They will continue to overvaluate bishops because of this creed for longer than they should.

for people rated 2000+ you are already adept at figuring out when one is superior to another so this general advice is simply useless.
so why keep insisting on this useless dogma?

i think you got a few things mixed up there

like what exactly?

Avatar of magipi
Thordelvalle wrote:

Knight 2.5 Bishop 3.5.

This is not the first place where you write this nonsense. These numbers are wildly off. Learn the real value of pieces, that might help you improve from the rating of 100.

The most commonly used one is bishop = knight = 3.

Avatar of Derek-C-Goodwin

I humbly offer its all about what positions the game is in, I would offer a slight whiskery slivery morsel of an advantage to the bishop, but its as tight as a mouses ear esp at my level.

Avatar of LieutenantFrankColumbo
NEHORAI-1 wrote:

In this question, I address the logic behind the equivalence of tools, and I hope you will provide as many answers as possible.

As with most things in chess then answer is...Depends.

Avatar of borovicka75

It depends not on which square the knight or bishop is but on pawn structure. The recent blitz game Carlsen vs Gukesh was another huge lesson for me. Gukesh´s bishop seemed to be good but Carlseńs knight was targeting black weak pawns and white won eventually. I highly recommend to everybody to watch Hikarus recap.

Avatar of MaetsNori

The whole "a bishop is worth more than a knight!" is common advice, and most players have thought this way at one point in their learning.

But once you become a more experienced player, you'll realize that a piece's worth depends on the position. Sometimes the bishop is more important. Sometimes you'd rather have the knight.

Think less about piece values and focus more on thinking ahead, and trying to figure out what the position calls for ...

Avatar of FelixG711

It depends on the position. 

General guide: Knights, 3. Bishops, 3.5. Closed position, Knights. Open position, Bishops.

Avatar of thedelcai

::: scratches head :::

Avatar of MrChatty
FelixG711 wrote:

General guide: Knights, 3. Bishops, 3.5

Who generalized this?

Avatar of thedelcai

Pawn 1

Knight 2.9461

Bishop 3.2972

Rook 5.7338

Queen 9.2105

Avatar of thedelcai

generally