ChessCafe

Curriculum
Translate this page
The Bishop
by Mark Donlan
In the starting position, the white bishops stand on the c1- and f1-squares, and
the black bishops stand of the c8- and f8-squares. In algebraic notation the
bishop is designated by the letter "B." Each bishop has a numeric value of
three points. The bishops, along with the knights, are referred to as "minor
pieces." The white light-squared bishop on f1 is often called the king's bishop,
and the white dark-squared bishop on c1 is called the queen's bishop. For
black, the colors are reversed and the dark-squared bishop is the king's bishop,
and the light-squared bishop is the queen's bishop.
[FEN "r1bqkb1r/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/
PPPPPPPP/R1BQKB1R"]
The bishops represented the elephants in the Indian army. The cut of the
bishop is symbolic of the tusks of an elephant. However, as chess adapted to
different cultures the piece was thought to resemble a cleric's mitre (a tall
cap); hence the name bishop. This conformed with the European notion of
chess as a replica of the king's court, rather than a battlefield association.
Purchases from our
chess shop help keep
ChessCafe.com freely
accessible:
The Panov-Botvinnik
Attack: Move by Move
by Lorin D'Costa
The Nimzo-Larsen Attack:
Move by Move
by Cyrus Lakdawala
Magnus Force (Ebook)
by Colin Crouch
A seventh or eighth century Islamic bishop
fromThe Metropolitan Museumof Art.
According to Davidson in A Short History of Chess the bishop goes by the
following names in other languages: in Arabic it is "fil," which means
elephant; in Czech it is "behoun," which means runner or courier; in Dutch it
is "looper," which means runner or courier; in French it is "fou," which means
jester or fool; in German it is "laufer," which means runner or courier; in
Greek it is "trellos," which means "worthy one"; in Italian it is "alfiere," which
means ensign; in Russian it is "slon," which means elephant; in Spanish it is
"alfil," which means "worthy one"; and in Turkish it is "fil," which means
elephant.
An Isle of Lewis chess bishop.
Yet according to Purdy in Chess Bits and Obits, the Spanish "alfil" is a
meaningless word that is an amalgam of the Arabic "Al Fil" (the elephant). He
writes that the French changed this to "Aufin"; the Welsh into "Elphyn"; the
Italians into "Alfino"; and the English into "Aufin." All of which meant
nothing, but "there was a natural tendency to change them still further into
words with meanings." Thus, the bishop likely has a greater variety of names
than any other chess piece.
Both sides have two bishops, each of which stands on a different color square:
one on a light square and one on a dark square. It is along these color squares
that each bishop is able to move. The modern move of the bishop was
introduced in the sixteenth century. In an earlier incarnation the bishop could
move either one square forward or one square diagonally; this fivefold move
was said to represent the four feet and trunk of the elephant. In Persian chess
the bishop lost its forward movement and leapt one square diagonally, similar
to how a checker piece makes a jump. An odd consequence of this is that none
of the bishops could then move onto a corner square or even combat its
counterpart from the opposing side.
[FEN "2b2b2/8/8/8/8/8/8/2B2B2"]
Nowadays, the bishop can cross the board in a single move. It can move
forward or backward, and attack, capture, and defend along any unobstructed
diagonal of the same color. Thus, the light-square bishop can never move
along the dark squares; nor can the dark-square bishop move along the light-
colored squares. This limits each bishop to only thirty-two squares and makes
enemy units on a square of opposite color invulnerable to attack. However,
both bishops can reach all sixty-four squares of the chessboard, and together
the bishop-pair is a powerful weapon.
Note that the queen incorporates both the sideways movement of the rook and
the diagonal movement of the bishop. As with most of the pieces, a bishop
controls more squares when it is placed in the center of the board. A dark-
squared bishop placed on square d4 or e5 controls thirteen squares; while a
bishop at the edge of the board, say, at squares a1 or h8 only controls seven.
Puzzles
1. Board Control
How many bishops can be placed on an empty board so that no bishop can
capture any other?
2. Dark-squared Bishop Mower
Mark Donlan
ChessCafe.com, 2013
[FEN "3p4/8/8/4p1p1/7p/p1p5/1p1B4/4p3"]
Capture all the black pawns (which do not move); every move must be a
capture.
3. Light-squared Bishop Mower
Mark Donlan
ChessCafe.com, 2013
[FEN "8/1p3p2/2B3p1/3p4/p3p3/1p6/6p1/8"]
Capture all the black pawns (which do not move); every move must be a
capture.
4. Retrograde Analysis
Raymond Smullyan
Chess Mysteries, ??
[FEN "4k3/5p2/2q5/8/8/6B1/1P1P1K2/8"]
Can you tell from looking at the diagram whether or not a white pawn has been
promoted?
5. Retrograde Analysis
Bruce Pandolfini
2013
[FEN "6K1/8/5Pk1/6Pp/7P/8/P7/1B6"]
Is this position legal? And, if so, how did it come about?
Playing Exercises
6. Bishop vs. Three Black Pawns
[FEN "8/8/2B5/8/5k1P/7K/8/8"]
If White can capture all the black pawns before one can promote (reach the
first rank), White wins. If Black can safely get a pawn to the first rank, Black
wins.
7. Two Bishops vs. Queen
[FEN "3q4/8/8/8/8/8/8/2B2B2"]
Play the bishops in the diagram and try to last ten moves without either one be
captured by the queen.
8. Endgame Study
J . Vancura
Cesk Slovo 1922
[FEN "8/8/8/8/8/2K4B/5k1P/8 w - - 0 1"]
White to move and win. Only one move wins, why?
9. Endgame Study
J . Vancura
Cesk Slovo 1922
[FEN "8/8/2B5/8/5k1P/7K/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
White to move and win. Only one move wins, why?
10. Endgame Study
J . Beasley
Killer Endgames 2011
[FEN "8/p7/Pp6/1Pp5/2Pbk3/1K6/3B4/8 w - - 0 1"]
White to move and win.
Answers
Puzzles
1. Board Control
Fourteen bishops can be placed on an empty board so that no bishop can
capture any other:
[FEN "7B/B6B/B6B/B6B/B6B/B6B/B6B/7B"]
2. Dark-squared Bishop Mower
The answer is 1.Bxg5 2.Bxd8 3.Bxh4 4.Bxe1 5.Bxc3 6.Bxe5 7.Bxb2 8.Bxa3.
Maurice Ashley, the first and only African-American to attain the grandmaster
chess title, coined the term "Pawn Mower" for this type of puzzle.
3. Light-squared Bishop Mower
The answer is 1.Bxa4 2.Bxb3 3.Bxd5 4.Bxf7 5.Bxg6 6.Bxe4 7.Bxb7 8.Bxg2.
4. Retrograde Analysis
The dark-squared bishop on g3 must be a promoted pawn; otherwise it would
have never been able to leave its starting square on c1.
5. Retrograde Analysis
Bruce Pandolfini
2013
[FEN "6K1/5p2/6k1/6Pp/4P2P/8/P7/1B6"]
The position arose from 1.e5+ f5 2.exf6#.
Playing Exercises
6. Bishop vs. Three Black Pawns
One possible line is 1.Be4 c6 2.Bd3 a5 3.Bc2 c5 4.Ba4 c4 5.Bb5 c3 6.Ba4 b5!
7.Bc2 a4 and Black will win the task.
7. Two Bishops vs. Queen
Maurice Ashley noted that both world champion Garry Kasparov and three-
time U.S. Women's Champion Irina Krush had a hard time with this challenge.
Though to match Kasparov's task, you would have to put forty-five seconds
on a clock.
8. Endgame Study
1.Bd7! Ke3! [1...Kf3 A) 2.h4 Ke4 (2...Kf4 3.Kd4+-) 3.h5 Ke5 4.h6 Kf6
5.Be8+-; B) 2.Kd4 Kf4 3.h4] 2.h4 Ke4 3.h5 Ke5 4.h6 [Or 4.Be8 Kf6 5.h6]
4...Kf6 5.Be8 1-0 White has to be able to cover the g6-square.
9. Endgame Study
1.Be4 Kxe4 [An interesting try is 1...Ke5 when the only win is 2.h5 Kf6 3.h6
Kf7 4.Bh7!! And now White can bring his king up the board.] 2.Kg4 Ke5
3.Kg5 1-0 White has to force the black king on to the e-file in order to make
progress for his own king.
10. Endgame Study
White wins by 1.Ba5 bxa5 2.b6 axb6 3.a7.
A PDF file of this article, along with all previous articles, is available in the
ChessCafe.com Archives.
If you have an exercise or suggestion that you would like to include in the
ChessCafe.com Chess Curriculum, please write to us via our Contact Page.
2013 Mark Donlan & BrainGamz, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comment on this month's column via our official Chess Blog!!
[ChessCafe Home Page] [ChessCafe Shop] [ChessCafe Blog]
[Book Review] [Columnists] [Endgame Study] [The Skittles Room]
[ChessCafe Links] [ChessCafe Archives]
[About ChessCafe.com] [Contact ChessCafe.com] [Advertising]
2013 BrainGamz, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
"ChessCafe.com" is a registered trademark of BrainGamz, Inc.