are bishops better than knights?

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SujanShadrak

What do you think???

Strangemover

Depends on the position. 

chesrookie930

Depends on open or closed and the pawn pattern

blueemu
chesrookie930 wrote:

Depends on open or closed and the pawn pattern

Right. Bishops are better in open positions with unbalanced pawn formations. Knights are better in closed positions.

SujanShadrak
chesrookie930 wrote:

Depends on open or closed and the pawn pattern

h chess rookie

blueemu
LordVoldemort03 wrote:

It really does depend on the situation: since bishops are longer ranges than the knights, they are better in uncrowded boards where they can zoom around. 

 

Another reason for bishops being better in any position is that the two bishops never will share squares: the knights are constantly jockying around for the squares since they can go on the same tiles.

Perhaps more central is the fact that a Bishop can defend on one wing at the same time that it supports an attack on the other wing. This is much more difficult for the short-ranged Knight to do.

LAWRENCE_PLAYZ

It totally depends. Bishops are great for attacking on long, open diagonals. While Knights are great for double attacking (or forking) due to the way it moves.

2Late4Work

Both of them can be crushing in the right situation. A bishop is normally way stronger than a knight in a endgame with pawns on both side of the table. In computers it's implemented that the bishop is slighty stronger. 3.25 vs 3 points. The bishop pair is often said to be 7 points together.

oregonpatzer

An American GM, IIRC it was Andy Soltis, wrote a paper on this in which he concluded that the most basic metric for determining knight versus bishop was the number of pawns on the board, and the break point was around ten.  More pawns favor the knight.   

Magnuscarlsen161
It depends on the position
nightdaydream

I can ask: is a kNight better than a Queen? The answer is "no, but...". Sometimes, in pawn promotion, we must get a Knight (underpromotion). Sometimes, we sacrifice the Queen to get a check mate with a kNight...  So, it doesn't matter if one Bishop is better than one knight: we begin the game with two bishops and two kNights...

Sombro56

I do not like this question.

KNIGHTS

Knights Pros: Once under attack they can move to places that are safe. 

Knights Cons: This is true for a small amount pieces. ( Pawns, Kings, maybe Knights, and maybe Bishops.)

BISHOPS

Bishops Pros: Are easily movable, free, and Bobby Fischer said so.

Bishops Cons: Are moderately simple to trap and move restrictively.

 

In conclusion they both are bad but they’re both good. There’s no in between. 

 

kindaspongey

Bishop v Knight: The Verdict by Steve Mayer

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708111530/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/bvkt.pdf

BringBackTheRomantic

Bishops are better. e.g. GMs evaluate a position based on who has the bishop pair, and consider exchanging a knight for a bishop a strategic victory. Who at super GM level plays the exchange Spanish? Yes, like everything in chess it depends on the position, in the same way that there are positions where a pawn is stronger than a queen...

16characterslong

In my opinion, the superiority of bishops realizes itself statistically rather than on the board. Similar to how White is considered to have a slight edge, but it's never the decisive factor in the game. People will have a slightly higher win percentage with whites, as a result of other factors emerging on the board where move order is only one of the underlying factors.

 

In case of rook v. bishop or rook vs. knight, the exchange is quite decisive with the rook playing for two results, and most often for a win. A rook can brute force its way through a position that would otherwise be equal against a minor piece, but it's hard to talk about such a domination of bishops over knights. I don't consider myself down an exchange with a knight against bishop, especially if my opponent doesn't have the bishop pair. One can find numerous endgames that favor knights as well as bishops.

SujanShadrak

hmm interesting

tgun5123

i think this is inappropriate 

kindaspongey

Possibly of interest: How to Reassess Your Chess (4th ed.) by Jeremy Silman
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708095832/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review769.pdf
https://www.silmanjamespress.com/shop/chess/how-to-reassess-your-chess-4th-edition/

oregonpatzer

Although I recognize the advantage of the two bishops, personally I don't care whether I have a single bishop or a single knight (except in the rare edge-pawn situation), it's up to me to summon the ingenuity to win, or at least save a draw.  

SujanShadrak
tgun5123 wrote:

i think this is inappropriate 

what do you mean?