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:
Training beginners in Chess – Count till 10 and then see the results change drastically!
“When angry, count to 10 before you speak. If very angry, up to a hundred!” is a very apt technique in anger management.
However, when I say “count till 10” to my online chess students, it is not for anger, but for impulsive chess playing habits.
And I have been finding a huge improvement in the way the children respond to their opponent’s move.
Training beginners in Chess to count till 10 – is my idea of superimposing a conscious task-repetition, to a subconscious task and making a conscious effort.
And pretty highly effective too!
This way it makes the mind be here and now.
Why is it so difficult to Training beginners in Chess
Among chess players especially when you are a beginner (whether child or adult, doesn’t matter) the biggest problem that all trainers face is that the players do not understand the importance of giving a second thought to the move that they are about to play.
More so in online chess classes and tests.
They play impulsively and instinctively.
And that is innate in all of us unless we are trained differently.
It has to do a lot with the way our body responds to external stimulus – known as the flight or fight syndrome.
When Training beginners in Chess, (especially kids who are beginners), I focus on this aspect in my online chess classes before going deep into theoretical domains.
Training beginners in Chess – fight or flight?
This is the body’s response to any perceptible threat or danger.
During this reaction, some hormones like Adrenalin and Cortisol are released by the body to cope with contingencies.
This results in faster heart rate and various other autonomic nervous functional changes, providing the body with a burst of energy and strength.
This response prepares the body to either fight or flees from the critical situation.
The person’s body is getting ready to do one of two things in such a scenario:
Confront the threat and deal with it, or
Get as far away from the threat as quickly as possible.
This fight or flight response can actually be life-saving when there is an actual and real physical threat.
For example, when driving, if you see someone cross the road in front, you suddenly slam the brakes as you need to react quickly in order to prevent an accident.
What needs to be changed when training beginners – whether kids or adults – in Chess?
The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a psychological reaction that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically.
However… What is strange is that the response can be triggered due to both real and imaginary threats.
We have fear and stress in non-critical threat situations too (like in a game of chess) because of the way we perceive these situations.
Our bodies cannot always tell the difference between real and imagined threats.
Therefore, when we interpret a situation as critical on the chessboard, our body is going to respond as though that situation is dangerous and threatening, even if it really isn’t in actuality.
The fight-or-flight response was first described in the 1920s by American physiologist Walter Cannon.
Cannon realized that a chain of rapidly occurring reactions inside the body help mobilize the body’s resources to deal with threatening circumstances – source
Training beginners in Chess – Count till 10 before making a move
This is my idea of making a chess move whether in online chess classes or games to slow down the untrained mind of chess kids.- a conscious effort reduces impulsive reactions.
This makes the mind to be in the mindful state of here and now.
So how do we get about doing this?
Simple. By asking the child to count till 10 before making a move, however, forced and obvious it may be.
They will be irritated by your advice, initially. Let them be.
Over time, they will understand why this drilling took place, and they will thank you for this.
Once the child has grasped the importance of this training he/she is free to play without counting.
