Improve Your Chess!

Without evaluating a specific position, it is difficult to answer this question. If you are under attack, you may need to keep your bishop. However, if you were on the attack, you may very well need to exchange your 'good' bishop for a key defensive piece in your opponents position.

I have developed a simple strategic assessment which helps clarify the role your bishops are too play. I define bishops as either an 'attacking bishop' or a 'defending bishop'. The attacking bishop is used to control space or remove key defenders in your opponents position. The defending bishop is kept close to home and guards weak color complexes in your own position.

The role to which each bishop is assigned is defined by the pawn structure. A familiar pawn structure in my openings have pawns at d4 and g3. With the other pawns on their starting squares, I now have 4 pawns on dark squares and 3 pawns on the light squares. Consequently, the dark-squared bishop is the attacking bishop while the light-squared bishop is the defending bishop.

The rule is simple, the attacking bishop is the bishop which travels the colored squares upon which you have placed the majority of your pawns. If you have an equal number of pawns on both the light and dark squares, both bishops are defending!

Was you have determined what roles your bishops are to play, you can better place them. Let's look first at the use of the defending bishop. As I mentioned earlier, the role of the defending bishop is to control the weak color complexes in your position. If the majority of pawns are placed on dark-squares, it stands to reason that your light-squares must be controlled by pieces. The defending bishop is well suited to plug holes left in your position by pawn moves.

Looking at my opening structure with pawns on d4 and g3, you will instinctively place your light-squared bishop on g2. However, the reason you do this is not so clear. Are you placing your bishop at g2 to attack along the a8-h1 diagonal? Or are you placing it there to secure your kingside? Given a particular chess position, you may be able to answer this question. However, more likely you are placing your bishop at g2 to secure the kingside against a middlegame attack while keeping an eye out for tactical opportunities arising on the long diagonal.

Using the role defined for your bishop by the pawn structure, you will understand the Bg2 is a defensive piece. It controls key attacking squares; namely h3, f3, e4, and d5. This is the primary reason you do not exchange your fianchettoed bishop.

On the other hand, your opponent likely has the opposite scenario. His pawns are placed on the light square, therefore, his light-squared bishop is attacking. In such a case, remove the defensive bishop fits well into its role. As you will recall, the attacking bishop is used to control space or remove key defenders. The exchange of the fianchetto bishop is a good example of the latter.

Another common use of the attacking bishop is to pin and/or remove a well placed knight. This actually fits both roles. A well placed knight is both an attacking and defending piece. By pinning the knight, the bishop indirectly controls the squares attacked by that knight. In many cases, the knight is also a key defender. So when the pin is broken, it may be beneficial to remove the knight.

However, you should first look and see if retreating the bishop to another square allows it to control a number of key squares. If so, then exchanging may not be the best alternative. Which approach is best will depend on the specific position. However, I summarize the use of the attacking bishop as annoyance to your opponents position. If you can not annoy your opponent with the attacking bishop, you should seek to exchange it.

You will find this approach incorporatess the concept of'good' bishop vs. the 'bad' bishop. Once you apply the roles defined above, you will notice that you have less bad bishops and at times two good bishops. In summary, simply follow the roles established for your bishops by the existing pawn structure. You are sure to find success over the board!

 

Written by: Kevin Monte de Ramos