Knight Vs Bishop

Greetings... i understand... that there are far more greater chess players than myself... actually if u check my records... you will actually see that i just lost my last three games... in a row... therefore... i know that there is someone out there who knows the game more than I do... however... recently... iv been in a few matched where it was my knight vs my opponents bishop... it was an end game so the board was pretty much open... however... my knight was dominating the board... why are knights soo much better

I don't know. Ask Kasparov--no, wait--Fischer?

It depends on the position. In closed positions, where the pawn chains are fixed, knights are far superior as they can jump over pawns, while bishops are better in open games, where they rake across long diagonals and control a lot of squares.

If you have a bishop for a knight, trying to open up the game may be good (eg. get pawns out off the board/open up files/diagonals for your bishop) or if the pawns are locked and you can't open it up, try to arrange a trade of your bishop for the knight.

Conversely, if you have a knight, try to keep the game closed and nullify your opponent's bishop. Putting pawns on the same colour as it can reduce its influence! Of course, if you reach an endgame you might want to put your pawns on the opposite colour square, so that the bishop can't capture them.

yeah...every one... thank you so much for this... its all good...very good advice... however... when im using a knight and my opponent has a bisho i usually feel like i have the upper hand... because knights are unique... but ur all good advice... why is the knight so different

Knights are unique, but bishops are very powerful. Knights control a lot of squares in one area, so they are good when the position is closed, as they can get to places that the bishop wouldn't. But a bishop on an open diagonal controls a lot of squares too, in a way that a knight could not. They both have their advantages; it depends on the position.

I usually prefer to have a bishop or preferably the bishop pair, but that's me.

Not to undermine the great waffle vs pancake debate, known for being a fantastic parallel for its trivial nature... and is responsible for half of my moniker.

But I was teaching someone the rules today, and one (at least I) tends forget how little a newcomer knows... i.e. nothing at all.  To ask "knight vs bishop" is actually a pretty sophisticated question.

But the best answer you'll get stuntmanxxx is the same for many of these kinds of quetions e.g. two rooks vs a queen or which side it's better to castle on.  The answer is always it depends on the specific position... where the rest of the pieces are.  It may be interseting to know that the average value over thousands of games as evaluated by a computer is that they're equal for all practical pourposes (a difference of 1/50th of a point).  http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/evaluation_of_material_imbalance.htm

As for the knights uniqueness, it may also be interesting to you to know that one way to describe the rule for the knight's movement is to say it can move to any square closest to it that is not on the same rank, file, or diagonal... or in other words, every square that a queen cannot move to when placed in the center of a 5x5 box :)