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The better minor piece

Loomis
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I see a lot of forum threads about whether knights or bishops are better. Of course the answer is that it depends on the position. So here I'll share a game where a knight outperforms a bishop by a huge margin.

 

A couple of positional ideas before we get to the game text:

Good/Bad Bishop: A bishop is said to be bad if there are central pawns on the same color square as the bishop and good if there are no pawns on the central squares. While bad bishops can be valuable if they are active, they are often not as valuable as other minor pieces in the game.

 
Knight Outpost: A knight outpost is a square that a knight can occupy without being attacked by a pawn (and often supported by a pawn of it's own).

 
Weak Pawn: A weak pawn is a pawn that can not be protected by another pawn. If such a pawn can be attacked, it becomes a liability for the defender.



Also see: Better minor piece in an endgame

Welcome to my blog! In the USCF I am rated 1921.

 

The content posted here is from my real chess experience, either games I've played or observed. I'll try to put an instructive twist on it. So if you're looking for a glimpse into how a B player thinks about the game, check in and see what I've got. Well, recently my rating has gone over 1800, so perhaps I should list myself as class A instead of class B, but it's not a huge difference.

Loomis
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