Good Bishop vs. Bad Bishop?

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Avatar of Giant_Number_Three

While reading a chess problem, part of the caption for it was "Black has played quite carelessly and traded off his important dark-squared bishop." What makes a bishop important in the opening? Does one important bishop mean that the other isn't important? If it helps you understand the context, here is the position:

 I'm assuming that black recently traded his dark squared bishop for white's queen-knight at c3.

Avatar of Fromper

The terms "good" or "bad" bishop refer primarily to the squares that the central pawns are on. It is possible for a "bad" bishop to be well placed and useful, or vice versa.

 

In this case, white's central pawns control the dark squares, so his light squared bishop is a good bishop, and his dark squared bishop is a bad bishop. Because of the position, even his bad bishop is well placed, though. Because of the black pawn on e6, the black light squared bishop is technically a bad bishop, though the fianchetto position could give it pretty good freedom of motion here. But black doesn't have any pawns on dark squares in the center in this position, so his dark square bishop could have been used to fight for control of those squares. That's why it was his good bishop, and trading it off was probably a mistake.

 

 --Fromper

Avatar of Creg

Jeremy Silman says that it is better to refer to bishops as "Active" or "Inactive" rather than good or bad. This allows you to better understand their importance in a given position.

The above diagram shows that white controls the a3-f8 dark diagonal, one which blacks' dark squared bishop once roamed. Now black will have difficulty castling.

The position shows many potential dark diagonals for the bishop to work with and so it could easily be deemed and "Active" bishop. It was unnecessary to give it up for a knight on c3 who; from the given position wasn't doing anything special.  

Avatar of Giant_Number_Three
Thanks for your responses. And if you're curious, the puzzle is mate in 2 for white.Laughing
Avatar of Don1
i couldn't believe it was a mate in 2 then i saw Qxe6+. Shows the importance of controlling key squares and the weaknesses pawn moves can create. Black's only a tempo+ behind in development. But the K is "stalemated", which can often lead to a quick mate. And the BQ is useless on the important dark squares near the K.
Avatar of Fromper

Heh. I knew white had a good position, but I didn't think it was THAT good until you pointed it out. I hadn't even looked for tactics. Oddly, it's a typical Boden's Mate pattern, but in a different location than usual, so once you pointed out that there was a mate, it only took me a few seconds to spot it.

 

--Fromper 

Avatar of StinkingHyena

Hmmm strange, I dont know how that position would come about, it seems familiar but not quite. So maybe 1 e4 d6 2 d4 d5 3 Bd3 dxe4 4 Bxe5 Nf6 5 Bd3 Bb4+ 6 Nc3 Bxc3 7 bxc3 Nbd7 9 Qe2 h6 10 Ba3! b6?? (I think you have to play c5 there, lose the pawn, but after black castles he still has some life) 11 Qxe6+!! fxe6 12 Bg6#

Might be a common trap in the French (I dont play it so dont know).

Avatar of StinkingHyena
StinkingHyena wrote:

Hmmm strange, I dont know how that position would come about, it seems familiar but not quite. So maybe 1 e4 d6 2 d4 d5 3 Bd3 dxe4 4 Bxe5 Nf6 5 Bd3 Bb4+ 6 Nc3 Bxc3 7 bxc3 Nbd7 9 Qe2 h6 10 Ba3! b6?? (I think you have to play c5 there, lose the pawn, but after black castles he still has some life) 11 Qxe6+!! fxe6 12 Bg6#

Might be a common trap in the French (I dont play it so dont know).

 

Ahhh ok move the c2 pawn to c4 becomes a Queens Gambit gone bad for black, I play that a bit, thats why it seemed familiar.

Avatar of StinkingHyena
rychessmaster1 wrote:

Thats a lot of bad bishops

 1 a8=B! Ba5+ 2 Kd1 Bcb3 3 Bc6# seems only fitting for the bishop to mate