I fianchetto based on the opening which calls for it. King's Indian, Queen's Indian, and the Pirc. I just follow the most familiar/comfortable opening for me which calls for a fianchetto.
Which bishop to flank?
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You can fianchetto both bishops if you want. What this accomplishes is obvious. Pressure on the long diagonal. In order to best decide when NOT to fianchetto you need to aquire a working knowledge of what a bishop is no longer doing for you once you have.
You need to have an advanced positional knowledge to know when to fianchetto and when not to. I think it is better for you not to fianchetto, unless you cannot find a better position for the Bishop.
Playing White, you may avoid fianchetto because fianchetto is passive and gives Black an easy equality. In a closed position (English, Catalan, KID, etc, but not KIA) you may not instantly find a very good diagonal for your Bishop, so if you want to do Bg2, make sure you don't hit a "stonewall" (pawns on b7-c6-d5), and pay attention to it's "competitor" (basically you don't want your opponent's light squared Bishop to control more light squares than yours). And if you do Bg2, you have to be consistent, by winning a pawn advancement on the Queenside (the Bishop should guide your pawn advancement and hit on opponent's pawns, not on empty space).
Playing Black, sometimes you have a cramped position and your option is to develop your Bishop to g7 (because in the center the Bishop is blocked by your own pawns). But even if you fianchetto (Bg7) you may sometimes find the Bishop hit your own pawn on e5, and this is quite permanent due to the center pawn structure (usually White has his pawn on e4). This is not good for the Bishop.
Thank you! you've helped a lot.
Simone
Sep 7, 2011
0
#6
You shouldn't fianchetto too early (like on move 2 as some players do. You generally want to make sure that there's something on the long diagonal that's worth pressuring. So if you fianchetto your light square bishop, you probably should make sure you don't have pawns on e4 and d5 (in most cases).
Hi guys!
I really like fiachettoing the bishop, but i think i'd be best to know which are the criteria of best-fiachetto. Which elements you have to trust to decide wich bishop is best to flank, or whether you have not to flank the bishop?
Thank you!
Simone