Which is better, Bishop or Knight?

Wow. Comment 20 already.

Really? Show me some proof.

Knights are haughty pieces. They don't like to work with other minor pieces. You can't force mate with two knights, and mate with knight and bishop is very difficult. But knights love the major pieces!

Bishop/Knight
Chicken/Egg

I can't figure this crap out after a few beers....

It depends on the situation, if the position is closed, knights are better, if the position is open, then the bishops are better.

It depends! When a Knight can be outposted any time after the 7th or 8th move, it can dominate the game. Bishops alone have a problem unless the PAWN formation favors them. The general rule is create a position favoring your Pieces and putting your opponent's Pieces under duress. The endgame usually favors the Bishop. Almost anytime the two Bishops have an advantage over a Bishop and a Knight unless the Knight can be outposted. However, a better question than the one you asked is : which is better a Bishop or a Knight PERIOD???? If that's the question, once again the answer is "It depends! It depends primarily upon the player's ability to use both pieces effectively in the endgame especially in domination! If you want, I mean really want to improve your Chess get a book on domination in the endgame! The best book is Kasparyan's Domination in 2,545 Endgames. When all the " RULES" are set aside, strong positional chess means your Pieces and Pawns work well together for both attack and defense; and strong tactical Chess means you're good at coordinating them via forcing moves.

Only motorboat dude and spidey know the real answer

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/bishops-or-knights5

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/bishop-or-knight9

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/bishop-and-knight---which-is-better

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/bishops-and-knights-are-equal

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/bishop-or-knight5

And there are probably well over 100 threads about this. When in doubt, search. Or, go with spidey. He knows.

Shit! I forgot about The Dude!

Always depends on the situation on the board. Its all about activity considering the pieces value. Its false to think in terms of a rook as 5 points and bishop knight 3 points and so on. Because every piece in every game has an individual value, based on his acticity. When a centrally placed knight dominates the board, its often worth a lot more than a rook, because its more active. How often do we see that good players give their rooks for a minor piece or return their material advantage in order to get rid of an important piece? Chess is a concrete game. Every move the evalutation and value of each piece changes.

Now to your question. A bishop is a very mobile piece, so its full power comes out in open positions. A position where all your pawns are on the different color of your bishop it has full power and is usually considered to be better than a knight because of itsbetter activity. A bad bishop is a bishop which has a limited activity because of the pawns being on the same color.

A knight is better in closed positions. The reason is it isnt a really mobile piece but it has a huge influence on the board when placed on the right square. A knight dominates a bishop in a closed position because it can be placed on the other color than the bishop so he cant do anything against it. As more pawns are on the same color as his bishop, as better.

This is a some simple knowledge about this topic. Also interestinf is how to handle bishops pair vs bishop and knight. In this case the side with the bishops pair needs to put all pawns on the color of the opponents bishop. This will completly limit its activity and will show the weaknesses on the other color squares.

Regards.