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Which is stronger – Bishop or Knight
Every chess player wonders Which is stronger – Bishop or Knight and has their own thoughts regarding this.
The confusion is even more if they are just beginning their chess practice.
That is because they are both assigned a numerical value of 3 and hence the confusion regarding which is stronger – Bishop or Knight?
When my students are just starting to learn chess, they have this idea that Bishops are more powerful than Knights.
Why? The reason according to them was that Bishops can travel long distances compared to Knights hence the bias towards Bishops.
But when they start training in our online chess classes and learn more about chess positions, they realize that it is not quite so simple as it seems to be.
Some of my students are just the opposite; they prefer to keep Knights on the board and exchange Bishops readily.
And they win games with their Knights against clueless opponents who have no idea of the cunning knight’s tricks!
If you are wondering, which is better, Knight or Bishop, then this article may guide you (or confuse you even further, who knows?)
The debate between Bishop and Knight is still going on!
In this article, we are going to go in-depth in the nitty-gritty about – Which is stronger – Bishop or Knight?
Many players incline towards bishops and even some World Chess Champions like Fischer and Steinitz favored the Bishop over a Knight.
Chigorin stood out as a different player and preferred Knights against Bishops.
I am not sure if there were others like him. But I personally like to keep knights on board due to their unpredictable nature.
My opponents usually misread the power of the knight.
If one of the knights landed on the square d6 or f5 then usually the game would end in my favor.
To have a sample of each piece’s prowess let’s look at some games that highlight the same.
Sample game 1 – The Power of the Double Bishop advantage
Below is the well-known game between Max Harmonist and Siegbert Tarrasch in the Berlin variation where many kibitzers and even Nimzowitsch in his celebrated book ‘My System‘ demonstrates this as a poignant reminder of the dual bishops’ advantage.
Sample game 2 – The Power of the Knights against the Bishops
And now it is time to witness the knight’s power against bishops played between the great legends Emanuel Lasker vs Mikhail Chigorin. It is instructive and worth replaying.
This game is a fantastic show of knight blockade, one would say after move 14.Bd3+- so Lasker must have thought, but some magic happened and Chigorin won!
When to prefer a Bishop?
When the position is open.
When to prefer a Knight?
When the position is closed.
Knights are more powerful in the opening and middlegame in chess, especially when there are a lot of pawns and pieces on the chessboard.
This is the time when Knights are very hot to handle. Handle them with care.
This is because Knights have a unique L-shaped move, which makes chess players have a really hard time understanding/predicting what they would do next.
In this context, Bishops are more predictable than Knights, even for advanced chess players.
Which is stronger – Bishop or Knight?
To sum up – Which is stronger – Bishop or Knight?
Generally, the Bishop is stronger than the Knight.
But there are exceptions where the Knight is stronger than the Bishop and these are:
1) When the Bishop can be restricted by a pawn chain and pawn structure.
2) When the Knight can find a strong outpost in the center.
That is it for now fellow chess players. If you have any doubts or suggestions feel free to contact me.
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