That's actually a pretty common trade off in some sicilian lines I believe. (Or at least I do it once in a while). If you can get strong passed pawns for the bishop without giving up too much counterattack I think it can be good sometimes. The problem I find sometimes is if black can stop the pawns, then essentially you're just down a piece which can lead to trouble.
A Minor piece or Three pawns?
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I think maybe having 3 pawns vs a bishop would be better than having 3 pawns vs a knight, since knights are notoriously awkward when stopping passed pawns
It really depends on the position and which pawns(outside passer/2 connected passers/3 connected passer/doubles/isolated etc), I think in most middlegame positions the piece tends to be slightly better but in an endgame the pawns can be strong.
keeganomahoney wrote:
It really depends on the position and which pawns(outside passer/2 connected passers/3 connected passer/doubles/isolated etc), I think in most middlegame positions the piece tends to be slightly better but in an endgame the pawns can be strong.
Yeah,connected pawns are usually the favourite there. White just has to be sure to limit Blacks counterplay.
Thanks for those games, I'll be sure to study them, there great games. I heard of La Bourdannais a while ago, but didnt know he had a game like that. Thanks again
I personally would take three pawns because if you traded everything off you would have a winning endgame.
Apr 22, 2016
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#8
If this happens early in the game, the minor piece has better chances ...if in endgame then the three pawns could win or it can end in a draw
Aug 23, 2016
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#9
I prefer the three pawns in most cases and sometimes just two is enough. Having connected center pawns can be very difficult to deal with since they tend to just take over as they advance.
It depends. Three connected outside passed pawns are usually better than the piece. 3 scattered isolated weak pawns are not.
I'd say three pawns, but only if they are connected and/or not doubled. If your opponent only has a minor piece, he's not gonna mate you, but if you have three pawns you can get queens.
Three pawn, this is easy. I have played a few games where i have a minor piece and my opponent has three pawns. He won that.
Its knowledge that a Knight or A Bishop is approximately worth three pawns. When I first joined my club I remember calculating the position and seeing I could get three pawns for the piece from a series of checks. I didnt of course, but ever since I regret it as I've always wanted to try it out. I've tried it against computers, but never in an actual chess game.
Most people ( as far as I'm concerned) only trade the piece usually in the endgame. AT one of my local tournaments, I was in diffucult game after blundering a piece, and looked over into my neighbour's game to see white with A bishop and a pawn against Black, who had three Isolated pawns. Black won the game by queening a pawn.
After watching a youtube video by Kasparov he showed a postion where white had three pawns for the piece, but it was a short video and I didnt get to see the game. I searched everywhere for it and eventually found it :