Chess lessons › Chess strategy
Good and bad bishops
A bishop is only as good as the diagonals its own pawns leave open, and the bishop pair is an edge.
The idea
A bishop is only as good as the diagonals its own pawns leave open.
- White’s centre pawns are on dark squares, so the bishop on d3 is good.
- Black’s pawns on light squares shut in the bishop on c8: it is bad.
- Free a bad bishop by moving a pawn that blocks it, or trade it off.
In a game: If most of your pawns stand on your bishop’s colour, it is bad: move them or trade it.
How the lesson begins
Both sides have a light-squared bishop and a chain of pawns in the middle. A bishop is good when its own pawns stand on squares of the other colour, and bad when they stand on its own colour and block it.
White’s pawns on c3, d4 and e5 are on dark squares, so White’s bishop on d3 is good. Black’s pawns on b7, c6, d5, e6 and f7 are on light squares, so Black’s bishop on c8 is bad: it has one move. The engine rates White as better.
A question
Black now has two bishops, and White has a bishop and a knight. Which of Black’s bishops is the bad one?
Show the answer
The bishop on c8: its own pawns block it.
Right. The bishop on c8 has one move, because the pawns on b7, c6, d5 and e6 stand on light squares, the colour it moves on.