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Bishop vs Knight: The Eternal Battle

'The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a player increases in strength the value of the Bishop becomes more evident to him, and of course there is, or should be, a corresponding decease in his estimation of the value of the Knight as compared to the bishop.' - Capablanca

Fischer called the difference in value between a bishop and a knight the minor exchange.

Giri said in comments to a game of his that he does not mind being a pwn down if he has the bishop's pair.

'The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a player increases in strength the value of the Bishop becomes more evident to him, and of course there is, or should be, a corresponding decease in his estimation of the value of the Knight as compared to the bishop.' - Capablanca Fischer called the difference in value between a bishop and a knight the minor exchange. Giri said in comments to a game of his that he does not mind being a pwn down if he has the bishop's pair.

Quick correction: "tanh is the inverse of a tan function." That's not true! It's the hyperbolic tangent, which is a different thing.

Quick correction: "tanh is the inverse of a tan function." That's not true! It's the hyperbolic tangent, which is a different thing.

@NDpatzer

Thanks for the tip! I edited the blog to correct that.

@NDpatzer Thanks for the tip! I edited the blog to correct that.

I think bishops’ pair, knights’ pair and B+N should be explained in the next article.

Also there’s piece popular amongst variants called Archbishop/Cardinal/Hawk/etc., which was in Carrera’s chess and later in Capablanca’s, Grand and Seirawan’s Chess variants. It’s just B+N combined.
Because @ubdip also contributed to Pychess.org, where those variants are available (and from which I know about them), there are also some estimates of values already done, and Archbishop worths about 8 pawns.

Would be nice to include him also.

Btw I have a personal opinion about that. Purely intuitive, without practice or calculation.
It says that Bishop worth near 4, but this is degraded by its colorboundness to be 3,5. Knight’s weakness is a short range, so on smaller boards it’ll be stronger and, unhappily for Knight, opposite also works. So they both get a small buff when there’re Bishops paired (though for Knights it works very bad), but when they’re combined in one piece, so Knight loses its weakness and gets range while Bishop also loses its weakness and gets other half of the board — then this is pure and powerful synergy.
Even Archbishop + Pawn > Queen (as counted). But those who told me that fact also told me that buff wouldn’t be as significant as I wanted to think.

Summary, for me Bishop is ~3,5 with no complains for a relatively long time.

I think bishops’ pair, knights’ pair and B+N should be explained in the next article. Also there’s piece popular amongst variants called Archbishop/Cardinal/Hawk/etc., which was in Carrera’s chess and later in Capablanca’s, Grand and Seirawan’s Chess variants. It’s just B+N combined. Because @ubdip also contributed to Pychess.org, where those variants are available (and from which I know about them), there are also some estimates of values already done, and Archbishop worths about 8 pawns. Would be nice to include him also. Btw I have a personal opinion about that. Purely intuitive, without practice or calculation. It says that Bishop worth near 4, but this is degraded by its colorboundness to be 3,5. Knight’s weakness is a short range, so on smaller boards it’ll be stronger and, unhappily for Knight, opposite also works. So they both get a small buff when there’re Bishops paired (though for Knights it works very bad), but when they’re combined in one piece, so Knight loses its weakness and gets range while Bishop also loses its weakness and gets other half of the board — then this is pure and powerful synergy. Even Archbishop + Pawn > Queen (as counted). But those who told me that fact also told me that buff wouldn’t be as significant as I wanted to think. Summary, for me Bishop is ~3,5 with no complains for a relatively long time.

I consider Bishop pair advantage of 0.5 increase https://github.com/jalpp/chessagine-mcp/blob/main/src/themes/material.ts#L47 in agine material advantage gets extra 0.5 if one side has extra pair due to reasons above, bishop in general is better than knight because it covers more squares and more space, that's my view though, but many systems prefer bishop just a little more!

I consider Bishop pair advantage of 0.5 increase https://github.com/jalpp/chessagine-mcp/blob/main/src/themes/material.ts#L47 in agine material advantage gets extra 0.5 if one side has extra pair due to reasons above, bishop in general is better than knight because it covers more squares and more space, that's my view though, but many systems prefer bishop just a little more!

Я из Узбекистана

Я из Узбекистана

@Diceroller_is_Fire said:

Also there’s piece popular amongst variants called Archbishop/Cardinal/Hawk/etc., which was in Carrera’s chess and later in Capablanca’s, Grand and Seirawan’s Chess variants. It’s just B+N combined.
Because @ubdip also contributed to Pychess.org, where those variants are available (and from which I know about them), there are also some estimates of values already done, and Archbishop worths about 8 pawns.

Thanks for the info!

Btw I have a personal opinion about that. Purely intuitive, without practice or calculation.
It says that Bishop worth near 4, but this is degraded by its colorboundness to be 3,5. Knight’s weakness is a short range, so on smaller boards it’ll be stronger and, unhappily for Knight, opposite also works. So they both get a small buff when there’re Bishops paired (though for Knights it works very bad), but when they’re combined in one piece, so Knight loses its weakness and gets range while Bishop also loses its weakness and gets other half of the board — then this is pure and powerful synergy.
Even Archbishop + Pawn > Queen (as counted). But those who told me that fact also told me that buff wouldn’t be as significant as I wanted to think.

Summary, for me Bishop is ~3,5 with no complains for a relatively long time.

That's a good explanation.

@Diceroller_is_Fire said: > Also there’s piece popular amongst variants called Archbishop/Cardinal/Hawk/etc., which was in Carrera’s chess and later in Capablanca’s, Grand and Seirawan’s Chess variants. It’s just B+N combined. > Because @ubdip also contributed to Pychess.org, where those variants are available (and from which I know about them), there are also some estimates of values already done, and Archbishop worths about 8 pawns. Thanks for the info! > Btw I have a personal opinion about that. Purely intuitive, without practice or calculation. > It says that Bishop worth near 4, but this is degraded by its colorboundness to be 3,5. Knight’s weakness is a short range, so on smaller boards it’ll be stronger and, unhappily for Knight, opposite also works. So they both get a small buff when there’re Bishops paired (though for Knights it works very bad), but when they’re combined in one piece, so Knight loses its weakness and gets range while Bishop also loses its weakness and gets other half of the board — then this is pure and powerful synergy. > Even Archbishop + Pawn > Queen (as counted). But those who told me that fact also told me that buff wouldn’t be as significant as I wanted to think. > > Summary, for me Bishop is ~3,5 with no complains for a relatively long time. That's a good explanation.

@tpr said:

'The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a player increases in strength the value of the Bishop becomes more evident to him, and of course there is, or should be, a corresponding decease in his estimation of the value of the Knight as compared to the bishop.' - Capablanca

Fischer called the difference in value between a bishop and a knight the minor exchange.

Giri said in comments to a game of his that he does not mind being a pwn down if he has the bishop's pair.

Oh yeah, I also saw Vishy Anand talk about how bishop is better: (clicking vid automatically links to the part where he talks about it).

https://youtu.be/OqCBzjj0iL8?t=1671

@tpr said: > 'The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a player increases in strength the value of the Bishop becomes more evident to him, and of course there is, or should be, a corresponding decease in his estimation of the value of the Knight as compared to the bishop.' - Capablanca > > Fischer called the difference in value between a bishop and a knight the minor exchange. > > Giri said in comments to a game of his that he does not mind being a pwn down if he has the bishop's pair. Oh yeah, I also saw Vishy Anand talk about how bishop is better: (clicking vid automatically links to the part where he talks about it). https://youtu.be/OqCBzjj0iL8?t=1671